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The clonal selection theory: 50 years since the revolution

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 November 2007

This article has been updated

October 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Frank Macfarlane Burnet's clonal selection theory in the Australian Journal of Science. This short article, republished at the end of this commentary, revolutionized the field of immunology.

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Figure 1: Burnet's “1st draft of clonal selection theory of antibody formation,” reproduced from his notebooks courtesy of the University of Melbourne Archives.

Change history

  • 19 October 2007

    In the version of this article initially published, the corresponding author information is incorrect. The correct e-mail addresses should be as follows: Alan.Baxter@jcu.edu.au and hodgkin@wehi.edu.au. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Ada, G. Nossal and I. Mackay for their discussions, correspondence and the provision of published materials; H. Koerner for his translation services; J. McCluskey for the transcript of Burnet's first draft of the clonal selection theory; and the Records of Frank Macfarlane Burnet held in the University of Melbourne Archives for access to their resources.

Permission to reprint Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet's paper of 21 October 1957 originally published in The Australian Journal of Science is granted by the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philip D. Hodgkin and William R. Heath are at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia. hodgkin@wehi.edu.au,

    Philip D Hodgkin & William R Heath

  2. Alan G. Baxter is at the Comparative Genomics Centre, Molecular Sciences Building 21, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia. Alan.Baxter@jcu.edu.au,

    Alan G Baxter

Authors
  1. Philip D Hodgkin
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  2. William R Heath
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  3. Alan G Baxter
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Hodgkin, P., Heath, W. & Baxter, A. The clonal selection theory: 50 years since the revolution. Nat Immunol 8, 1019–1026 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni1007-1019

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