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Timeline of immunology:

• 1718 - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British ambassador to Constantinople, observed the positive effects of variolation on the native population and had the technique performed on her own children.
• 1798 - First demonstration of vaccination smallpox vaccination (Edward Jenner)
• 1837 - First description of the role of microbes in putrefaction and fermentation (Theodore Schwann)
• 1838 - Confirmation of the role of yeast in fermentation of sugar to alcohol (Charles Cagniard-Latour)
• 1840 - First "modern" proposal of the germ theory of disease (Jakob Henle)
• 1850 - Demonstration of the contagious nature of puerperal fever (childbed fever) (Ignaz Semmelweis)
• 1857-1870 - Confirmation of the role of microbes in fermentation (Louis Pasteur)
• 1862 - phagocytosis (Ernst Haeckel)
• 1867 - First aseptic practice in surgery using carbolic acid (Joseph Lister)
• 1876 - First demonstration that microbes can cause disease-anthrax (Robert Koch)
• 1877 - Mast cells (Paul Ehrlich)
• 1878 - Confirmation and popularization of the germ theory of disease (Louis Pasteur)
• 1880 - 1881 -Theory that bacterial virulence could be attenuated by culture in vitro and used as vaccines. Proposed that live attenuated microbes produced immunity by depleting host of vital trace nutrients. Used to make chicken cholera and anthrax "vaccines" (Louis Pasteur)
• 1883 - 1905 - Cellular theory of immunity via phagocytosis by macrophages and microphages (polymorhonuclear leukocytes) (Elie Metchnikoff)
• 1885 - Introduction of concept of a "therapeutic vaccination". First report of a live "attenuated" vaccine for rabies (Louis Pasteur).
• 1888 - Identification of bacterial toxins (diphtheria bacillus) (Pierre Roux and Alexandre Yersin)
• 1888 - Bactericidal action of blood (George Nuttall)
• 1890 - Demonstration of antibody activity against diphtheria and tetanus toxins. Beginning of humoral theory of immunity. (Emil von Behring) and (Shibasaburo Kitasato)
• 1891 - Demonstration of cutaneous (delayed type) hypersensitivity (Robert Koch)
• 1893 - Use of live bacteria and bacterial lysates to treat tumors-"Coley's Toxins" (William B. Coley)
• 1894 - Bacteriolysis (Richard Pfeiffer)
• 1896 - An antibacterial, heat-labile serum component (complement) is described (Jules Bordet)
• 1900 - Antibody formation theory (Paul Ehrlich)
• 1901 - blood groups (Karl Landsteiner)
• 1902 - Immediate hypersensitivity anaphylaxis (Paul Portier) and (Charles Richet)
• 1903 - Intermediate hypersensitivity, the "Arthus reaction" (Maurice Arthus)
• 1903 - Opsonization
• 1905 - "Serum sickness" allergy (Clemens von Pirquet and (Bela Schick)
• 1909 - Paul Ehrlich proposes "immune surveillance" hypothesis of tumor recognition and eradication
• 1911 - 2nd demonstration of filterable agent that caused tumors (Peyton Rous)
• 1917 - hapten (Karl Landsteiner)
• 1921 - Cutaneous allergic reactions (Carl Prausnitz and Heinz Küstner)
• 1924 - Reticuloendothelial system
• 1938 - Antigen-Antibody binding hypothesis (John Marrack)
• 1940 - Identification of the Rh antigens (Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Weiner)
• 1942 - Anaphylaxis (Karl Landsteiner and Merill Chase)
• 1942 - Adjuvants (Jules Freund and Katherine McDermott)
• 1944 - hypothesis of allograft rejection
• 1946 - identification of mouse MHC (H2) by George Snell and Peter A. Gorer
• 1948 - antibody production in plasma B cells
• 1949 - growth of polio virus in tissue culture, neutralization with immune sera, and demonstration of attenuation of neurovirulence with repetitive passage (John Enders) and (Thomas Weller) and (Frederick Robbins)
• 1949 - immunological tolerance hypothesis
• 1951 - vaccine against yellow fever
• 1953 - Graft-versus-host disease
• 1953 - immunological tolerance hypothesis
• 1957 - Clonal selection theory (Frank Macfarlane Burnet)
• 1957 - Discovery of interferon by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann
• 1958-1962 - Discovery of human leukocyte antigens (Jean Dausset and others)
• 1959-1962 - Discovery of antibody structure (independently elucidated by Gerald Edelman and Rodney Porter)
• 1959 - Discovery of lymphocyte circulation (James Gowans)
• 1960 - Discovery of lymphocyte "blastogenic transformation" and proliferation in response to mitogenic lectins-phytohemagglutinin (PHA) (Peter Nowell)
• 1961-1962 Discovery of thymus involvement in cellular immunity (Jacques Miller)
• 1961- Demonstration that glucocorticoids inhibit PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation (Peter Nowell)
• 1963 - Development of the plaque assay for the enumeration of antibody-forming cells in vitro (Niels Jerne) (Albert Nordin)
• 1964-1968 T and B cell cooperation in immune response
• 1965 - Discovery of the first lymphocyte mitogenic activity, "blastogenic factor" (Shinpei Kamakura) and (Louis Lowenstein) (J. Gordon) and (L.D. MacLean)
• 1965 - Discovery of "immune interferon" (gamma interferon) (E.F. Wheelock)
• 1965 - Secretory immunoglobulins
• 1967 - Identification of IgE as the reaginic antibody (Kimishige Ishizaka)
• 1968 - Passenger leukocytes identified as significant immunogens in allograft rejection (William L. Elkins and Ronald D. Guttmann)
• 1969 - The lymphocyte cytolysis Cr51 release assay (Theodore Brunner) and (Jean-Charles Cerottini)
• 1971 - Peter Perlmann and Eva Engvall at Stockholm University invented ELISA
• 1972 - Structure of the antibody molecule
• 1973 - Dendritic Cells first described by Ralph M. Steinman
• 1974 - T-cell restriction to major histocompatibility complex (Rolf Zinkernagel and (Peter C. Doherty)
• 1975 - Generation of the first monoclonal antibodies (Georges Köhler) and (César Milstein)
• 1976 - Identification of somatic recombination of immunoglobulin genes (Susumu Tonegawa)
• 1979 - Generation of the first monoclonal T cells (Kendall A. Smith)
• 1980-1983 - Discovery and characterization of the first interleukins, 1 and 2 IL-1 IL-2 (Kendall A. Smith)
• 1981 - Discovery of the IL-2 receptor IL2R (Kendall A. Smith)
• 1983 - Discovery of the T cell antigen receptor TCR (Ellis Reinherz) (Philippa Marrack) and (John Kappler) (James Allison)
• 1983 - Discovery of HIV (Luc Montagnier)
• 1984 - The first single cell analysis of lymphocyte proliferation (Doreen Cantrell) and (Kendall A. Smith)
• 1985-1987 - Identification of genes for the T cell receptor
• 1986 - Hepatitis B vaccine produced by genetic engineering
• 1986 - Th1 vs Th2 model of T helper cell function (Timothy Mosmann)
• 1988 - Discovery of biochemical initiators of T-cell activation: CD4- and CD8-p56lck complexes (Christopher E. Rudd)
• 1990 - Gene therapy for SCID
• 1991 - Role of peptide for MHC Class II structure ([Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri] & [Ronald N. Germain])
• 1992- Discovery of transitional B cells (David Allman & Michael Cancro)
• 1994 - 'Danger' model of immunological tolerance (Polly Matzinger)
• 1995 - Regulatory T cells (Shimon Sakaguchi)
• 1995 - First dendritic cell vaccine trial reported
• 1996-1998 - Identification of Toll-like receptors
• 2001 - Discovery of FOXP3 - the gene directing regulatory T cell development
• 2005 - Development of human papillomavirus vaccine (Ian Frazer)

v • d • e History of biology Fields and disciplines Natural history • History of agriculture • History of medicine • History of anatomy • History of zoology (through 1859)• History of plant systematics • History of geology • History of paleontology • History of evolutionary thought • History of zoology (1859–1912) • History of ecology • History of model organisms • History of phycology • History of genetics • History of biochemistry • History of agricultural science • History of molecular biology • History of molecular evolution • History of immunology • History of biotechnology Institutions Rothamsted Experimental Station • Pasteur Institute • Max Planck Society • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory • Stazione Zoologica • Marine Biological Laboratory • Rockefeller University • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute • Laboratory of Molecular Biology Experiments Griffith's experiment • Miller-Urey experiment • Luria-Delbrück experiment • Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment • Hershey-Chase experiment • Meselson-Stahl experiment • Crick, Brenner et al. experiment • Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment • Nirenberg and Leder experiment Publications On Generation and Corruption • Historia Plantarum • De humani corporis fabrica • De motu cordis • Micrographia • Systema Naturae • Philosophie Zoologique • Principles of Geology • Vestiges of Creation • The Origin of Species • "Experiments on Plant Hybridization" • The Descent of Man • "The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance" • What is Life? • Genetics and the Origin of Species • "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" • "Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids" Theories and concepts Spontaneous generation • Great chain of being • Lamarckism • Darwinism • Germ theory of disease • One gene-one enzyme hypothesis • Sequence hypothesis • Central dogma of molecular biology • RNA world hypothesis • Hierarchy of life Influential figures Aristotle • Andreas Vesalius • William Harvey • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek • Carolus Linnaeus • Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon • Jean-Baptiste Lamarck • Alexander von Humboldt • Charles Lyell • Charles Darwin • Alfred Russel Wallace • Gregor Mendel • Louis Pasteur • Robert Koch • Ernst Haeckel • Ivan Pavlov • Jacques Loeb • Hugo de Vries • E. B. Wilson • Thomas Hunt Morgan • Aleksandr Oparin • Alexander Fleming • J. B. S. Haldane • Sewall Wright • R. A. Fisher • Konrad Lorenz • Barbara McClintock • Theodosius Dobzhansky • Ernst Mayr • George Beadle • Seymour Benzer • Rosalind Franklin • James D. Watson • Francis Crick • Fred Sanger • Max Perutz • John Kendrew • Sydney Brenner • Joshua Lederberg • Walter Gilbert • Kary Mullis • Stephen Jay Gould • Lynn Margulis • Carl Woese • Jane Goodall Related topics History of science • History of medicine • Philosophy of biology • Timeline of biology and organic chemistry • Natural philosophy • Natural theology • Humboldtian science • Relationship between religion and science • Eugenics • Human Genome Project • History of creationism • History of the creation-evolution controversy

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