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Meeting Report

Nature Immunology 9, 695–698 (1 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/ni0708-695

Metchnikoff's Legacy in 2008

Carl Nathan

The first cell to be assigned a function in host defense, the macrophage, remains a hot topic in immunology, cell biology and experimental medicine today, a century after the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to Ilya Mechnikov (also known as Elie Metchnikoff), for discovering the function of the macrophage, and was awarded simultaneously to Paul Ehrlich. Metchnikoff credited phagocytes with influencing development, ensuring homeostasis and protecting the host from infection through a process he called 'innate immunity'.