Wayne Yokoyama

Wayne Yokoyama discovered the Ly49 receptor family in mice and formulated the licensing model of NK cell education, demonstrating that NK cells require inhibitory receptor engagement with self-MHC during development to become functionally competent killers, a paradigm that transformed understanding of innate immune tolerance. His work on NK cell memory and the rheostat model of NK cell responsiveness showed that effector function is continuously tuned by the MHC environment. His contributions to understanding missing-self recognition provided the theoretical framework for KIR-mismatch transplantation strategies.