In this article, Heidelberger and Wolfgang Nimmich, an expert on Klebsiella at the University of Rostock in East Germany, examined the cross-reactivity of antibodies to the bacterium Klebsiella with pneumococcal polysaccharide antigens. Klebsiella and pneumococcus are different species of bacteria in phylogenetic and evolutionary terms, but share immunological determinants (surface sites on antigens to which antibodies bind) that enable their respective antibodies to react with antigens of the other species. From such cross reactions, the focus of his experimental work during his last three decades, Heidelberger learned many details about the chemical composition of antigens and antibodies.
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