Michael's earlier work has arguably had an even broader and more practical impact. He was the first person to be able to ectopically express immunoglobulin-encoding genes in lymphocytes, work that resulted in the identification of the key enhancer elements that control expression of immunoglobulin light chains. This technology was also instrumental in the invention of CDR (complementarity-determining region) grafting, in collaboration with Greg Winter, and later led to the generation of mice that produce wholly human transgene-encoded antibodies and the foundation of a now multibillion-dollar industry.
Michael was born 2 November 1953 into an academically gifted family. His father, Albert Neuberger, was a noted biochemist who founded the modern field of glycobiology and who, coincidentally, supervised Fred Sanger's Ph.D. In 1974, after graduating with a First class Honors degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge, Michael joined Brian Hartley as he moved from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology to head the Department of Biochemistry at Imperial College in London. There he joined Greg Winter as a fellow graduate student, the start of an amicable competition and lasting friendship. Michael's Ph.D. work on characterizing gene amplifications in bacteria won him a research fellowship back at Trinity College and the freedom to start research in any laboratory that would host him. He sought advice from Sydney Brenner, who suggested approaching César Milstein and—if he could get more 'yes' than 'no' responses during the conversation—joining César's subdivision of protein chemistry at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology to study antibodies. 'Yes' responses prevailed, but César recommended that he first go and learn some immunology, so Michael joined Klaus Rajewsky's laboratory in Cologne for 18 months before returning to Cambridge and the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where he remained for the rest of his career, becoming head of the Protein and Nucleic Acid Division and deputy director. He was elected to the Royal Society before the age of 40, a source of particular pride for his father and a very rare concurrence of father and son as Fellows. Only this year, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the United Stated National Academy of Sciences, a rare honor for a non-US citizen.
