Rodney Robert Porter used proteolytic fragmentation to study antibody structure and binding. His 1958 report describes fractions that retained antigen interaction despite losing the ability to produce the same precipitation behaviour as intact antibody.
Binding and crosslinking are different functions. Separating them chemically helped connect antibody architecture with the different experimental readouts.[ref]
Separation and Isolation of Fractions of Rabbit Gamma-Globulin containing the Antibody and Antigenic Combining Sites by Rodney Robert Porter. Public opening paragraph: digestion, precipitation, and specific inhibition
Portrait of Rodney Robert Porter
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Rodney Robert Porter (1917–1985) was a prominent British biochemist known for his significant contributions to the understanding of the structure and function of antibodies. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972, which he shared with Gerald M. Edelman for their discoveries concerning the biological role of antibodies.