The Immune team discusses the groundbreaking discoveries of regulatory T cells, which was the topic of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cindy Leifer, and Brianne Barker

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Sakaguchi lab paper on FoxP3 and regulatory T cells (Science 2003)
• Brunkow and Ramsdell description of scurfy mouse mutation (Nature 2001)
• Nobel Prize writeup on Treg discoveries
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Immune logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Susan Schwab talks about how she got the research bug, bugs she ate, and her research on how the lipid S1P helps T cells decide- should I stay or should I go.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Susan Schwab

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Schwab lab website
• Monocytes produce the lipid S1P to regulate T cell movement
• Review on S1P and immune cell migration
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Immune discusses cross-reactive antibodies to avian influenza neuraminidases and a role for gut-derived T cells in the brain to regulate eating behavior.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cindy Leifer, Steph Langel, and Brianne Barker

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Antibody cross-reactivity to influenza H5N1 (Cell Host Microbe, 2025)
• Gut-derived T cells regulate behavior (Nature, 2025)
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Immune logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Kristian Andersen from Scripps Research Institute joins Cindy to talk about how he got interested in virus evolution, how the immune system drives viral adaptation, and what we can learn from this research to better prepare us for the next pandemic.

Guest: Kristian Andersen

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Andersen Lab website
• Perspective on Immunological drivers of virus emergence
• Kristian's appearance on TWiV 774
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Cindy and Steph discuss a paper that challenges the textbook dogma that B cells must first bind to an antigen for antibody affinity maturation to occur, and a snippet on dysfunctional T cells during bacterial vaginosis.

Hosts: Cindy Leifer and Steph Langel

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Somatic hypermutation in non-specific B cells (Immunity 2025)
• Dysfunctional T cells during bacterial vaginosis (J Clin Invest 2025)
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Immune logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Cindy sits down with Bali Pulendran at the AAI 2025 meeting where he told the story of how a childhood fascination with the cosmos grew into a career addressing fundamental questions about the human immune response, and how when an antigen enters the body it is like the big bang in how it initiates immune responses.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Bali Pulendran

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Systems vaccinology determines antibody responses and durability (Nature 2025)
• World's largest immunology experiment (Sem Immunol 2024)
• Systems Vaccinology Review (Immunity 2010)
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Elizabeth Marnik, also known as Science Whiz Liz, grew up unvaccinated, yet she is now an immunologist, science communicator, and advocate for vaccines–this is her story.

Guest: Elizabeth Marnick

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• More about Liz on her webpage
• ScienceWhizLiz on Instagram
• From the Science Classroom with Science Whiz Liz on Substack
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Immune discusses the potential future of delivering vaccines by flossing your teeth and how antibodies in human milk shape the normal immune responses in newborns.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cindy Leifer, Steph Langel, and Brianne Barker

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Floss-based vaccination (Nat Biomed Engineering 2025)
• Press article on Floss-based vaccine paper (Sci News)
• Human milk IgA promotes immune development (PNAS 2025)
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Immune logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Cindy speaks with Aimee Pugh Bernard from University of Colorado about her career and her passion for teaching and communicating immunology to the public.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Aimee Pugh Bernard

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• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• More about Aimee on her webpage
• Funsizeimmuninja on Instagram
• Fun Size Science video partnership with Unbiased Science
• Funsizeimmuninja Substack
• Society for Leukocyte Biology
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.

Immune discusses how cancer cells swap mitochondria with T cells and then digs in for a discussion of an unusual checkpoint blockade that failed for cancer but could be repurposed for autoimmune inflammation.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cindy Leifer, Steph Langel, and Brianne Barker

Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of Immune!

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Cancer cells steal mitochondria from neurons for metastasis (Nature 2025)
• Cancer cells donate damaged mitochondria to T cells to impair them (Nature 2025)
• PD-L1 binding to CD80 on the same dendritic cell needed for migration (Sci Adv 2025)
• Time stamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!

Music by Tatami. Immune logo image by Blausen Medical Send your immunology questions and comments to [email protected]

Information on this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.