Roy Cameron lecture. Control of antibody formation: certain uncertainties.

The formation of antibodies has been the subject of hypothesis and experimentation for the whole of this century. Our knowledge of antibody formation has made dramatic advances on several occasions. Many of these advances have become crystallised as certainties in the text books. The fascination of the subject, however, has always been its uncertainties, which have continued to undermine the text book picture of antibody formation. As ever in research, the questions are more important than the answers. For an understanding of antibody formation, or of any other biological system, one must ultimately turn to the molecular level. This necessity was plainly seen by Roy Cameron who, in recreating his research department in 1946, 'determined to explore the new techniques for examination of cell fractions, and lethal syntheses, and biochemical lesions in the cell' (Oakley, 1968). Progress in the study of antibody formation during the past three decades has been achieved by exploring the paths pointed out by Roy Cameron. Those paths have led us well over any horizon that could have been foreseen in 1946 and even beyond horizons visible in 1966. At our present stage in the exploration I will attempt to draw together the apparent certainties and indicate some of the uncertainties. I will begin with the beguiling question of antibody diversity, a subject for which the cellular, genetic, and molecular basis continues to hold many uncertainties.