The capacity to decipher the DNA encoding our genes, and techniques to make antibodies of exquisite mono-specificity are the foundations of modern molecular medicine.

Experts such as Professor Peter Lane, however, still don’t know how to allow a transplanted organ to survive indefinitely without immunosuppression of  the host, but they do know it’s an achievable goal — during pregnancy, the mother ‘tolerates’ the developing child without mounting a damaging immune response. Modern molecular medicine affords us glimpses of the processes that enable this to happen.

Peter Lane is Professor of Clinical Immunology and the MRC Centre for Immune Regulation, part of the Institute of Biomedical Research at Birmingham Medical School. He works on the molecular and cellular basis of CD4 memory as he believes that understanding these mechanisms will provide important new therapies for human diseases.