Milstein, César, 1927-2002

Csar Milstein was born in Baha Blanca, Argentina, on 8 October 1927, the middle boy of three sons. His father was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant and his mother, a teacher, was also Jewish but born in Argentina, although her family had originally emigrated from Lithuania. As a child Milstein developed an interest in biology at an early age. In an interview in 1998 he recounted that it stemmed from a holiday visit made by his cousin, a chemistry graduate student from the University of Buenos Aires, when he was just over seven years old: 'Her explanations of how she removed venom from snakes and used it to prepare antiserum to treat people bitten by poisonous snakes had a profound impact on me and awakened my interest in biology'.

After schooling at the Colegio Nacional in Baha Blanca, Milstein studied chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires. Here he was active in student politics and met his future wife, Celia Prilleltensky. They married in 1953, taking a one-year honeymoon trip travelling around Europe and Israel. Returning to the Instituto de Quimica Biologica at the University of Buenos Aires, Milstein studied for his doctorate under the direction of the eminent biochemist A.O.M. Stoppani, Professor of Biochemistry at the Medical School. To support themselves during this period both he and his wife worked part-time as clinical analysts, Milstein for Laboratorios Liebeschutz. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1957, for a kinetic analysis of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase and on its completion Milstein was awarded a British Council Fellowship to go to Cambridge to work in the Department of Biochemistry under Malcolm Dixon, studying the mechanism of metal activation of the enzyme phosphoglucomutase. There he met Fred Sanger, with whom he formed a lifelong association, and completed a second doctorate. In 1961 he returned to Argentina as Head of Division de Biologia Molecular, Instituto Nacional de Microbiologia in Buenos Aires to continue his research into enzymes.

...