While studying tuberculosis in the late 1940s, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence discovered that the immune competence of a donor could be transferred to a naive recipient by using low molecular weight extracts obtained from white blood cells. Dr. Lawrence called these small molecule extracts transfer factor (TF). If the thymus gland can be compared to grammar school and prep school, transfer factor can be compared to collegiate and graduate level training for the immune system. Scientists later found transfer factors to be universally effective, regardless of the differences between the species of the donor and recipient. This aspect of transfer factors is partly explained by this core scientific belief: the more essential a material or structure is to living organisms, the more common it is to see this material or structure throughout living systems. Transfer factors are essential components of even the most primitive immune systems.

One basic principle of the immune system is that it must be able to respond quickly and specifically, while not exhausting itself by over responding and attacking normal tissue. Transfer factor preparations consist of three identifiable fractions named by their discovered effects on the immune system. They are inducer, antigen specific and suppressor fractions. More recent understanding of immune function would rename the suppressor fraction as the regulator factor. The TF inducer fraction triggers a general state of readiness in the immune system. The antigen-speific fraction is an array of critical tags used by the immune system to identify a host of enemy microbes. Meanwhile, the regulator fraction keeps the immune system from focusing all its strength on a defeated infection and ignoring new microbial threats; it is responsible for controlling immune overreactions that can cause autoimmune disorders. Each fraction (inducer, antigen specific, and regulator) improves one or more aspects of the adaptive ability of the immune system.

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