“The Importance of Basic Research in Advances in Medicine and Technology,” Cesar Milstein

“Monoclonal antibodies are a fine example of the importance that every society and society should give to basic research. All biotechnology has its origin in basic research,” said the scientist.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of scientific research as a common occurrence. At the national, regional and international levels, the contribution of the science and technology system to solving the problems associated with the health emergency is quite clear. The training and communication of people at the national and international levels has been shown to be an essential asset for responding to an unforeseen situation for which we did not have protocols of action”, explains researcher Jose Baruelo, stressing that the epidemic has revealed some problems that should be taken into account when designing public policies, Among them, that scientific research and scientists are key to solving complex (and above all) unexpected problems; that the system of science and technology must always be active, that science is global and collaborative, but that the availability of supplies, diagnostic kits, ventilators, etc., It is not.The possession of national sciences is critical not only to ensuring cultural sovereignty, but to solving problems posed by restrictions on trade, the availability of foreign exchange, or the commodification of knowledge and technology.

Science support or science support? asked the Argentine scholar Marcelino Cereguedo, Argentine physician, professor, researcher, scientific publisher and writer, based in Mexico.

In 1993 Dr. César Milstein, upon receiving the remarkable Connex Prize for Science and Technology, in his thanks to it, emphasized “the importance of fundamental research in advances in medicine and technology. Monoclonal antibodies are a fine example of the importance that every community and society should give to research.” Basic. All biotechnologies originated in basic research.”

Later, he recalled that “Hosai was once asked if he thought a country like Argentina could afford to do basic research, to which Hosai replied, ‘Argentina is too poor to bear the lack of basic research.” Hosai wanted to draw attention to The importance of basic research in intellectual development and technological development, said Milstein, who was honored with the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on improving the immune defense system through the development of monoclonal antibodies, which has remarkable clinical application in medicine and veterinary medicine for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. Infectious, neoplastic and degenerative diseases.In addition, it is very useful in cases of organ or tissue transplant rejection.

Cesar Milstein was proud to confirm that all his preparations to reach this space in international sciences were acquired in the country where he graduated, after completing the basic course in public schools, with a bachelor’s degree and then a doctorate in chemistry at the Faculty of Science. Exactas y Naturales Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. He later continued his career in England where he joined Professor Fred Sanger’s group at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. There he studied the chemical structure of proteins for several years.

In 1975 he discovered and prepared the first monoclonal antibody in collaboration with Dr. George Koehler.

There you can find the background and platform that allowed this legion of scientists from all over the world, to crown in less than a year, the vaccines that made it possible to confront the pandemic that the world is witnessing.