Focus

Nature Immunology is 10

Focus issue:
July 2010 Volume 11, No 7

Nature Immunology was launched 10 years ago in July 2000. In the past 10 years this journal has attempted to publish immunology research that significantly advances the understanding of the workings of the immune system. To commemorate this anniversary, we asked several prominent scientists to imagine what the next decade of research might bring in particular areas of immunology. This collection represents but the tip of the iceberg and is not meant to represent the only interests of Nature Immunology, as many other exciting areas remain to be explored. After all, our motto remains "Immunology. All of it."

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Editorial

Looking forward p545

doi:10.1038/ni0710-545

Nature Immunology turns 10 years old in July. What new immunologic insights will the next decade bring?

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Commentaries

Innate immunity: quo vadis? pp551 - 553

Ruslan Medzhitov

doi:10.1038/ni0710-551

The next decade will probably witness the development of new concepts that will incorporate the presently unexplained aspects of innate immunity.

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Illuminating emergent activity in the immune system by real-time imaging pp554 - 557

Matthew F Krummel

doi:10.1038/ni0710-554

The imaging of tissues and organs as it is now practiced will seem primitive in the coming decade, yet use of this technology will define the origin of emergent activities and drive an era of system integration.

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The future of mucosal immunology: studying an integrated system-wide organ pp558 - 560

Navkiran Gill, Marta Wlodarska & B Brett Finlay

doi:10.1038/ni0710-558

Over the next 10 years, it will be important to shift the focus of mucosal immunology research to make further advances. Examination of the mucosal immune system as a global organ, rather than as a group of individual components, will identify and characterize relationships between mucosal sites.

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Understanding immunity requires more than immunology pp561 - 564

Kevin J Tracey

doi:10.1038/ni0710-561

Acetylcholine and related neurotransmitters appeared with unicellular life forms, millions of years before innate immunity. Tools and insights are now available for understanding how the evolving nervous system influenced the development of immunity.

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Tools and landscapes of epigenetics pp565 - 568

Alexander Tarakhovsky

doi:10.1038/ni0710-565

Epigenetics studies the phenotypes that are born from past experiences and are kept for life.

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