Niels K. Jerne shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system.
Jerne proposed influential theories about how the immune system recognizes antigens and regulates antibody production. His ideas helped shift immunology toward viewing immunity as a dynamic, self-regulating network rather than a simple one-way response.
The 1984 prize was shared with Georges Köhler and César Milstein, who discovered the principle for producing monoclonal antibodies. Those experimental findings complemented Jerne’s theoretical work on immune specificity.
A common mistake is to associate the entire 1984 award only with monoclonal antibodies. Jerne was recognized separately for theoretical principles governing immune-system development and control.