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Sometimes, revolutions do happen in science. Historian Lara Marks thinks the story of monoclonal antibodies is one of them. These immune molecules form the basis of six out of ten of the world’s best-selling drugs, and they’re found in home-testing kits for pregnancy and menopause, and hospital tests for MRSA and HIV. They can be made to recognise specific molecules, tagging them for destruction by the body’s own immune system.

“As a historian you’re meant to be cynical, but it was revolutionary. It did transform things,”

she says in the latest episode of the Nature PastCast, which recounts the story.

Monoclonal antibodies had a quiet debut in a pretty technical Nature paper. Only one line at the end hinted at their potential clinical relevance. No patent was filed on the original technique. Decades later, they are worth billions to the biotechnology industry. In 2012, the monoclonal antibody market was estimated to be worth $60 billion.

This podcast tells the story of how basic science became blockbuster drugs:

It’s the fifth instalment of the Nature PastCast, each month raiding Nature’s archive and exploring key moments in the history of science. Find previous episodes on DNA, the ozone hole , ‘gorilla fever’, and science in wartime  in the Nature archive. Look out for the next one in September, when we travel back to the swinging 60s as the Earth begins to move for geologists.