TIMD4 and asthma: The T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain (TIM) family of genes, which contained eight members (encoding TIM-1 to TIM-4 and putative TIM-5 to TIM-8) in mice and three members (Tim-1, Tim-3 and Tim-4) in human, was first positionally cloned in the T cell and airway phenotype regulator (Tapr) locus as a novel group of allergy and asthma susceptibility genes [1, 2].