Hazy mysteries and the major histocompatibility complex: a journey

I was pleased to receive an invitation to write a historical perspective on my career. As I understand it, these perspectives aim to illustrate the often-twisted paths to discoveries, the fortuitous events that often enable them, and the pitfalls along the way. At the same time, they can be expected to illustrate the influence of the particular 'tastes' and interests of a scientist in the choices that are made along the way and that there are many ways to position oneself in a field of study. This article describes my initial interest in molecular biology, the early events that led me to undertake graduate studies in cellular immunology with a focus on MHC restriction of T cell specificity and T cell activation, and the serendipitous events that led to my eventual transition to a focus on natural killer cells and cancer immunotherapy. I hope that this piece provides some of the illustrations mentioned and will therefore be of interest to a range of readers with an interest in immunology research.