Review
The lymphocyte — a disgraceful gap in medical knowledge

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Abstract

The term ‘lymphocyte’ is now a barely adequate umbrella to encapsulate the wealth of molecular and cellular data concerning antigen-specific immune cells. However, this was not always the case. Here, James Gowans, formerly director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cellular Immunology Unit and Secretary of the MRC, revisits the pioneering studies that uncovered the crucial link between lymph cells and immune responses.

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