Illustration of the US biologist Bruce Beutler (born 1957). Beutler, the son of German-US haematologist Ernest Beutler, worked in his fathers lab, and that of Japanese-US genticist Susumu Ohno from a young age. He graduated from high school at he age of 16 and obtained a degree in biology at 18 before completing his MD at the age of 23. He is best known for his work on tumour necrosis factor, which he showed also had an inflammatory role in the immune system, and the discovery of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor. The LPS receptor recognises bacterial lipopolysaccharides and triggers an immune response. Beutler was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Jules Hoffmann and Ralph Steinman for his discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity.