Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
news feature
Nature 410, 1018-1020 (26 April 2001) | doi:10.1038/35074279
Cinderella goes to the ball
Phyllida Brown1
Abstract
After decades of neglect, research into 'innate' immunity has moved to centre stage. Phyllida Brown explores the excitement that now surrounds an evolutionarily ancient arm of our immune system.
The innate immune response — an inflammatory reaction that helps control infections in their early stages — has long been the Cinderella of immunology. For decades, innate immunity was dismissed as an evolutionary throwback, providing no more than a quick-and-dirty holding operation before giving way to the exquisitely complex adaptive immune response.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).