I was working on C-type lectin-like receptors of the Dectin-1 cluster, especially on CLEC-1, during my PhD project. We tried to find the ligand, but although we tested everything we could get hold of, we couldn't find it.
It seems to me, others might have encountered similar issues. One by one all the other receptors in the family have been characterized thoroughly and there are lots and lots of papers on Dectin-1, CLEC-2, LOX-1, CLEC9a and so on. However, hardly anything on CLEC-1.
I'm working on something very different now, but CLEC-1 is still haunting me...
Is anybody out there still working on it, so that I might find out eventually, what it actually does?