The History of Toll-like Receptors - Redefining Innate Immunity

TLDR: Toll-like receptors have a central role in immunity — in this Timeline article, the landmark findings that gave rise to this important field of research are described.

Abstract: The discovery of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) was an important event for immunology research and was recognized as such with the awarding of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Jules Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler, who, together with Ralph Steinman, the third winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize and the person who discovered the dendritic cell, were pioneers in the field of innate immunity. TLRs have a central role in immunity - in this Timeline article, we describe the landmark findings that gave rise to this important field of research.

Full text

The history of Toll-like receptors - redefining innate immunity.
O'Neill, L.A.J., Golenbock, D., Bowie, A.G., The history of Toll-like receptors-redefining innate
immunity, Nature Reviews Immunology, 13, (6), 2013, p453-460
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Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

Author information LPS had been studied in great detail as an important component of endotoxin — the substance that had been identified as the ill-­‐defined causative agent of Gram-­‐negative bacteria-­‐induced sepsis. Few receptors in the history of immunology had received more attention than the LPS receptor, but attempts to determine the identity of this receptor were hampered by the difficulties in working with a ligand that was so structurally heterogeneous and impossible to purify to homogeneity.