Contemporary Topics in Molecular Immunology

Immunochemistry, recently rechristened molecular immunology, has been pre­ occupied throughout its long history with the structure and function of antibodies and the specificity of antibody-antigen reactions. With the recent X-ray diffrac­ of several crystallized immunoglobulin (Ig) fragments and a whole tion analyses Ig molecule, the three-dimensional structure of antibodies and their ligand­ combining sites has been realized, marking the concluding stages of a phase of immunological research t