Interferon Research: Impact on Understanding Transcriptional Control

Abstract

Celebrations are certainly in order for the 50th anniversary of the Isaacs/Lindenmann discovery of interferon as a secreted substance of probable cellular origin that conferred resistance to at least four viruses of distinctly different character—influenza, Sendai, Newcastle’s disease, and vaccinia. Personal pride, excusable, I hope, leads me to recall also that following the trail of how interferon works its magic led 15 years ago this year to the discovery of the STATs and their activation by the Jak kinases. These later findings were stimulated by and in turn further stimulated an ever deepening interest in how transcription figured in changing cell behavior. Here are presented some further reflections on these topics.