He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".

[4] His ancestors had lived on the small Danish island of Fanø for centuries, but in 1910 his parents moved to London, where Jerne was born in 1911.

Four years later, he was awarded the doctorate for his thesis, A Study of Avidity Based on Rabbit Skin Responses to Diphtheria Toxin-Antitoxin Mixtures.

[5] From 1943 to 1956 Jerne was a research worker at the Danish National Serum Institute and during this time he formulated a theory on antibody formation.

Jerne continued to do work for the World Health Organization as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel of Immunology from 1962 and onwards.

In 1966 Jerne moved back to Europe and took up the position of Professor of Experimental Therapy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.

It was met by skepticism among his colleagues at first, James Watson for example told Jerne bluntly that his theory "stinks".