Citation | O’Neill is distinguished for his seminal discoveries on signaling in inflammation and innate immunity. He discovered the protein Mal, a signaling adapter critical for nearly all TLRs and a key signal linking innate and adaptive immunity. He showed that viral proteins interfere with TLR signaling, providing the first link between TLRs and anti-viral immunity. His discovery of a role for the metabolite succinate in macrophage activation contributed to our understanding of metabolic changes in inflammatory cell signaling. These discoveries have been influential in the shift of focus amongst immunologists towards innate immunity and in our understanding of inflammation. |