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The first two worked with innate immunology and it turned out that the insect Toll gene (Hoffmann) expressed a receptor that is very similar to the mammalian Toll Like Receptor (TLR) discovered later by Beutler.

The innate immunology is the first line of defense and is non-specific, fast and has no memory of earlier infections.

Steinman discovered, 25 years earlier, in 1973, the dendritic cell, a cell that controls adaptive immunity that is the second line of defense. It is slow and has memory, and is the cell type that is active when we get vaccines.

Consensus is related to the interpretation of the experiments and is not as important as being able to repeat the experiments. If a discovery is done that can be repeated, it might be the case that it is in conflict with the general consensus about what is happening. Then someone has to think and that is normally done by only on person and if he or she figures out an explanation it might later be part of the “consensus”.