At a 2009 meeting at the University of California, Davis, plant pathologist Pamela Ronald and a group of immunologists were talking about the work that led to the identification of the first mammalian innate immune receptor a decade before. Ronald, who isolated the first immune receptor in plants that recognizes a conserved microbial molecule, had heard the story before. This time, however, the name of the mammal paper’s lead author—Bruce Beutler—jumped out at her. A branch of her family contained some Beutlers. In fact, she had regularly kept in touch with Käthe Beutler, who occasionally mentioned her geneticist grandson. “Somehow it just clicked,” recalls Ronald. Bruce Beutler, chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Scripps Research Institute, was her cousin.
“He isolated the first of these receptors in animals, I isolated the first in plants. It was just such a coincidence,” says Ronald. She sent Beutler an e-mail, attaching ...
