Basement membranes (BMs) are extracellular sheet-like structures present in all multi-organisms. The major components are laminins, collagen type IV, nidogens and heparan sulfate proteoglycan perlecan. The pioneer in the field of laminins (LMs) was Ruppert Timpl who characterized in 1979 the first member of a new protein family.1 At that time the authors concluded in the publication: “At present, it is not clear what role laminin plays in basement membranes.” They had not realized to what extent the LM molecules would later be recognized for their dynamic role in diverse cellular processes. The constant interest in LMs is proven by the high number of published papers (20,384 publications in 2012) with the term “laminins” and which also reflects their importance in cellular signaling. Aumailley (schooled in the R. Timpl thought) provides a historical view of the LM family pointing out the new LM members that were successively discovered over the years.2 The community proposed and agreed on a new terminology that simplifies LM nomenclature. For example, LM-111 replaced LM-1 to better reflect its α1β1γ1 subunit composition. There are more than 50 theoretically possible heterotrimeric associations between all the α, β and γ chains but only a smaller number of LMs has been suggested. The exact number of proven isoforms is still under debate ranging from 15 to 18 isoforms. Two new potential LM isoforms 321 and 422 have been recently identified by biochemical and biophysical techniques.3 Whether these two latter isoforms exist in vivo remains to be confirmed. LM chains differ at the level of the amino acid sequences with predicted molecular masses ranging from ~130 (LMβ3 chain) to ~400 kDa (LMα5 chain) with actual sizes being larger due to post-translational modifications. LMs possess structural domains that are conserved among all the isoforms despite this apparent heterogeneity in structure as emphasized by Aumailley and by Yurchenco.2,4 The mapping of the major functions of LMs in relation to their structure is provided and discussed by Aumailley, among which cell-adhesion promoting activity and basement membrane assembly.2