Elizabeth Marian Press (5 October 1920 – 30 December 2008) was a British immunologist, best known for her work with Rodney Porter on the structure of

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

. She worked side by side with Porter for 25 years, at the

National Institute for Medical Research The National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC); In 2016, the NIMR became part of the new F ...

, St Mary's Hospital and in the Medical Research Council Immunochemistry Unit, and played a major role in him being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Press was born on 5 October 1920 at 85 Crawford Street,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, London, the only child of Sydney George Press, the manager of a zinc and plumbing business, and Hilda Marian Press (née Hall), who was a ladies' maid before marriage. Press was 19 years old when the Second World War started, and joined the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the World War I, First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in ...

(WRNS, "the Wrens"). After the war, she obtained a BSc in chemistry at

Queen Mary College, London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

, and had research experience at the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

Medical School.

Career

On 1 October 1955, Press joined Rodney Porter's research group at the

, Mill Hill, London. Her studies on antibodies were important in determining the chain structure, and particularly the observation that more than one gene was involved in coding for antibodies. Her work led to Porter's Nobel Prize in 1972, together with

Gerald Edelman Gerald Maurice Edelman (; July 1, 1929 – May 17, 2014) was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research conc ...

. The structural studies on antibodies were essential in the chain of scientific discoveries which led to the development of monoclonal antibodies by

César Milstein César Milstein, CH, FRS (8 October 1927 – 24 March 2002) was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler for ...

, and led to the subsequent development of monoclonal antibodies which are now widely used as treatment for many cancers. ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' described Press as "a 'major' yet largely unknown contributor to the field of immunology". Although she only had a BSc herself, Press supervised the PhD research of others, including Nancy Hogg, now a group leader at

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

The chain structure of antibodies

Press's work provided the first evidence that immunoglobulin heavy chains had variable regions similar to those observed in light chains, and identified a particularly variable segment, now known as complementarity-determining region 3. Her research also pointed to evidence that at least two genes are involved in the synthesis of the heavy chain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Press, Elizabeth National Institute for Medical Research faculty British immunologists Alumni of Queen Mary University of London People from Marylebone Scientists from London 1920 births 2008 deaths 20th-century British women scientists