Essay

The authors recount their discovery of how pathogen-induced interleukin 12 production leads to T_H1 T cell polarization. Simultaneously they discovered the suppressive cytokine interleukin 10 inhibits antigen-presenting cells, thus regulating development of T_H1 cells.

Jan Vilcek relates how his work helped to identify some of the pleiotropic actions of tumor necrosis factor and contributed to the development of infliximab, the first medically useful tumor necrosis factor antagonist.

Do you delight in Brahms? Do you delight in immunology? Tada Taniguchi recounts the story of Type 1 interferon and its downstream regulators.

Anjana Rao recounts the contributions of two talented and productive postdoctoral fellows who purified and characterized the transcription factor NFAT.

Harald von Boehmer describes how he used mice transgenic for T cell receptor αβ to identify T cell receptor–dependent cellular selection and lineage commitment as mechanisms responsible for generating an effective and self-tolerant adaptive immune system.

The idea that NK cells can distinguish aberrant cells by recognizing 'absence of the expected', rather than 'presence of the unexpected' emerged more than 25 years ago. Klas Kärre recapitulates how the idea took shape, and the first five years of experimental work to test its general predictions.

Tasuku Honjo recounts his work aimed at unraveling the molecular mystery of how antibodies undergo antigen-induced maturation.

Jack Strominger recounts his seminal work and contributions to understanding bacterial cell wall components, and thus how penicillin functions, and the implications of these discoveries for immunology.

Andrew McMichael recounts the seminal data he and colleagues produced demonstrating that cytotoxic T lymphocytes kill cells expressing antigenic peptides presented on major histocompatibility complex class I molecules.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Burnet's clonal selection theory. Here Gustav Nossal recounts his pioneering work that supported Burnet's theory and led to the death of the direct template hypothesis.

Innate immunity has come to the forefront in immunology, aided by the discovery of antifungal defense in drosophila. Here Jules Hoffmann recounts his team's pioneering work on insect immunity.

Blimp-1 is a transcription factor that affects the expression of hundreds of genes in lymphocytes. Recent work confirmed its role in the maturation of B cells into immunoglobulin-secreting plasmablasts, as well as in the control of T cell homeostasis and tolerance. What follows is a short history of how Blimp-1 was discovered.

Discovering the transcription factors that direct lineage commitment in the T helper cell was a formidable task. Laurie Glimcher describes how she and Susanne Szabo hunted down T-bet, a transcription factor that is a 'master regulator' of commitment to the T helper type 1 lineage.

Emil R. Unanue recounts his seminal work 25 years ago demonstrating that antigens are phagocytosed and processed by antigen-presenting cells and that class II major histocompatibility complex molecules are peptide-binding proteins.

The established dogma of 'horror autotoxicus' was overturned 50 years ago with the publication of a paper showing that autoimmune thyroiditis could be induced in animals. Noel Rose recounts the events that led to the establishment of autoimmunity as a cause of disease.

Envisioning how T cells might recognize antigen presented by major histocompatibility complex molecules proved to be a formidable challenge. Pamela Bjorkman describes her journey to provide structural insights into how such recognition is achieved.