Èlie Metchnikoff (1845–1916) was the first champion of cellular immunology, focusing his studies on the central role of phagocytes in host defense.
César Milstein (1927–2002) pioneered monoclonal antibody production with Georges Köhler.
Ray Owen (1915–2014) discovered that genetically different twin calves with a common placenta, thus sharing placental blood circulation, were immunologically tolerant to one another’s tissues.
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) was a French microbiologist and immunologist who validated the concept of immunization first studied by Jenner. He prepared vaccines against chicken cholera and rabies.
Rodney Porter (1917–1985) worked out the polypeptide structure of the antibody molecule, laying the groundwork for its analysis by protein sequencing.
Ignác Semmelweis (1818–1865) German-Hungarian physician who first determined a connection between hospital hygiene and an infectious disease, puerperal fever, and consequently introduced antisepsis into medical practice.
George Snell (1903–1996) worked out the genetics of the murine major histocompatibility complex and generated the congenic strains needed for its biological analysis, laying the groundwork for our current understanding of the role of the MHC in T-cell biology.
Tomio Tada (1934–2010) first formulated the concept of the regulation of the immune response by ‘suppressor T cells’ in the 1970s, from indirect experimental evidence. The existence of such cells could not be verified at the time and the concept became discredited, but Tada was vindicated when researchers in the 1980s identified the cells now called ‘regulatory T cells.’
Susumu Tonegawa (1939–) discovered the somatic recombination of immunological receptor genes that underlies the generation of diversity in human and murine antibodies and T-cell receptors.
Jg Tschopp (1951-2011) contributed to the delineation of the complement system and T-cell cytolytic mechanisms, and made seminal contributions to the fields of apoptosis and innate immunity, in particular by discovering the inflammasome.
Don C. Wiley (1944–2001) solved the first crystal structure of an MHC I protein, providing a startling insight into how T cells recognize their antigen in the in the context of MHC molecules.
Fig. 1.1 reproduced courtesy of Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Fig. 1.4 second panel from Tilney, L.G., Portnoy, D.A.: Actin filaments and the growth, movement, and spread of the intracellular bacterial parasite, Listeria monocytogenes. J. Cell. Biol. 1989, 109:1597–1608. With permission from Rockefeller University Press. Fig. 1.24 photographs from Mowat, A., Viney, J.: The anatomical basis of intestinal immunity. Immunol. Rev. 1997, 156:145–166. Fig. 1.34 photographs from Kaplan, G., et al.: Efficacy of a cell-mediated reaction to the purified protein derivative of tuberculin in the disposal of Mycobacterium leprae from human skin. PNAS 1988, 85:5210–5214.