Collagens are functional, high affinity ligands for the inhibitory immune receptor LAIR-1

Collagens are the most abundant proteins in the human body, important in maintenance of tissue structure and hemostasis. Here we report that collagens are high affinity ligands for the broadly expressed inhibitory leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 (LAIR-1). The interaction is dependent on the conserved Gly-Pro-Hyp collagen repeats. Antibody cross-linking of LAIR-1 is known to inhibit immune cell function in vitro. We now show that collagens are functional ligands for LAIR-1 and directly inhibit immune cell activation in vitro. Thus far, all documented ligands for immune inhibitory receptors are membrane molecules, implying a regulatory role in cell–cell interaction. Our data reveal a novel mechanism of peripheral immune regulation by inhibitory immune receptors binding to extracellular matrix collagens

Practical Applications as a Source of Credibility: A Comparison of Three Fields of Dutch Academic Chemistry

In many Western science systems, funding structures increasingly stimulate academic research to contribute to practical applications, but at the same time the rise of bibliometric performance assessments have strengthened the pressure on academics to conduct excellent basic research that can be published in scholarly literature. We analyze the interplay between these two developments in a set of three case studies of fields of chemistry in the Netherlands. First, we describe how the conditions under which academic chemists work have changed since 1975. Second, we investigate whether practical applications have become a source of credibility for individual researchers. Indeed, this turns out to be the case in catalysis, where connecting with industrial applications helps in many steps of the credibility cycle. Practical applications yield much less credibility in environmental chemistry, where application-oriented research agendas help to acquire funding, but not to publish prestigious papers or to earn peer recognition. In biochemistry practical applications hardly help in gaining credibility, as this field is still strongly oriented at fundamental questions. The differences between the fields can be explained by the presence or absence of powerful upstream end-users, who can afford to invest in academic research with promising long term benefits

Félix d’Hérelle en de controverse rond het Twort-d’Hérelle Fenomeen in de jaren 1920: ultrafiltreerbaar virus of lytisch ferment

Felix d'Herelle and the controversey on the Twort-d'Herelle phenomenon in the 1920's: ultrafilterable virus or lytic ferment This paper deals with a controversy on the Twort-d'Herelle phenomenon — also called bacteriophagy — which continued during the 1920's and 19.30's. This phenomenon is characterised by the marked lysis of bacteria by a so-called 'lytic principle'. The article is focused on one of the important persons in this controversy: Felix d'Herelle. The idea that the 'lytic principle' is a living ultrafilterable virus (F. d'Herelle) was opposed to that which describes it as a ferment (J. Bordet). In the beginning of the scientific dispute the criteria between living and dead were playing a preponderant role. Later on, the discussion moved to the question whether the 'lytic principle' is a product of the bacterium or that it is exogenous. Both positions were able to explain most of the experimental findings. The phenomenon attracted a lot of bacteriologists and pathologists because of its supposed potentialities with regard to immunity against bacterial infections

Félix d’Herelle en de bacteriofaagtherapie: de laboratoriumtafel naast het ziekbed

Felix d’Herelle and bacteriophage-therapy: the lab-bench besides the sick-bed. Felix d'Herelle (1873-1949) decribed in 1917 an in vitro phenomenon which implied a marked lysis of a bacteria-culture. He presumed that this was caused by an ultrafiltrable, living virus and called it Bacteriophage. It is argued that his ideas about bacteriophage can be placed in a Pasteurian tradition. Ever since his first article he put forward that this lysis would also occurred in vivo and that recovery from a bacterial infection was assured by this bacteriophage. This implied a therapeutical usage of bacteriophage.To promote these conceptions he felt himself obliged to criticize traditional immunology, viz, humoral and cellular mechanisms. Especially the idea of bacteriolytic sera was attacked by D'Herelle, In his opinion this traditional immunology (endogenous immunity) had hardly a share in recovery from bacterial infection. He claimed that this was done by the exogenous immunity: the bacteriophage. D'Herelle's general criticism on the, then current serological practice was that they studied non-natural infectious diseases. Because of the obligation to study natural diseases and the characteristics of bacteria and bacteriophages (viz. variability) he, in fact, pleaded for an integration of the (bacteriological) laboratory and the clinic

Leeuwenhoek's Legatees and Beijerinck's Beneficiaries

The title of the book pays tribute to two Dutch scientists without whom virology would arguably not exist today, at least not in its present guise. The first is Antony van Leeuwenhoek, whose reports of microscopic discoveries in the early eighteenth century aroused interest in the world of invisible creatures. His findings laid the basis for a theory of a particulate cause of infectious diseases, but, as George Rosen wrote, without any tangible results in support of the theory (1993/1958, pp. 84-85). Some 250 years later Martinus Willem Beijerinck launched the discipline of virology with his idea that tobacco mosaic disease (TMD) was caused by a living contagious fluid or filterable living pathogen

Leeuwenhoek's Legatees and Beijerinck's Beneficiaries

The title of the book pays tribute to two Dutch scientists without whom virology would arguably not exist today, at least not in its present guise. The first is Antony van Leeuwenhoek, whose reports of microscopic discoveries in the early eighteenth century aroused interest in the world of invisible creatures. His findings laid the basis for a theory of a particulate cause of infectious diseases, but, as George Rosen wrote, without any tangible results in support of the theory (1993/1958, pp. 84-85). Some 250 years later Martinus Willem Beijerinck launched the discipline of virology with his idea that tobacco mosaic disease (TMD) was caused by a living contagious fluid or filterable living pathogen