IL-1β has been shown to play an important role in driving the pathogenesis of numerous microbial infections, such Escherichia coli-induced sepsis, severe lung inflammation during influenza infection, Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced pneumonia, Burkholderia pseudomallei-induced melioidosis, and Porphyromonas gingivalis-mediated periodontal tissue destruction (Schultz et al., 2002, 2003; Sahoo et al., 2011; Kato et al., 2014; Vanden Berghe et al., 2014; Kim et al., 2015). The gene discussed is IL1B; the disease is pneumonia.