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The Immune Tolerance Network at 10 years: tolerance research at the bedside

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 10, pages 797–803 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Immune tolerance-inducing therapies reprogramme immune cells to eliminate pathogenic immune responses while preserving protective immunity. The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health, was established in 1999 to evaluate new tolerance-inducing therapies and carry out mechanistic studies using a unique interactive approach in partnership with industry, academia and foundations. Ten years later, the ITN has carried out approximately 36 clinical trials and tolerance studies examining innovative tolerogenic approaches in the settings of allergy, autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation. ITN investigators have published more than 80 original research papers based on this work. This Timeline article summarizes the progress and challenges of clinical research in the ITN.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the many people inside the ITN, NIAID and Rho, as well as the immunology community at large, for the hard work, support and creative ideas that have helped the ITN to flourish. Special thanks to the ITN funders — NIAID, JDRF, FAI and NIDDK — and to all the companies who have worked with the ITN and its clinical investigators.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jeffrey A. Bluestone is at the Diabetes Center and Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.,

    Jeffrey A. Bluestone

  2. Hugh Auchincloss and Daniel Rotrosen are at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland 20817, USA.,

    Hugh Auchincloss & Daniel Rotrosen

  3. Gerald T. Nepom is at the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, Washington 98101, USA.,

    Gerald T. Nepom

  4. E. William St. Clair is at the Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.,

    E. William St. Clair

  5. Laurence A. Turka is at The Transplant Institute, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,

    Laurence A. Turka

Authors
  1. Jeffrey A. Bluestone
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Bluestone.

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Competing interests

Jeffrey A. Bluestone, Hugh Auchincloss, Gerald T. Nepom, Daniel Rotrosen, E. William St. Clair and Laurence A. Turka The Immune Tolerance Network at 10 years: tolerance research at the bedside. Nature Reviews Immunology 10, 797–803 (2010); doi:10.1038/nri2869

Jeffrey A. Bluestone has a financial interest in MacroGenics both as a stockholder and as a paid consultant.

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Bluestone, J., Auchincloss, H., Nepom, G. et al. The Immune Tolerance Network at 10 years: tolerance research at the bedside. Nat Rev Immunol 10, 797–803 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2869

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