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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Links for this episode

• 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

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

Links for this episode

• 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.   

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Elizabeth Marnick

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

Links for this episode

• 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

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

Links for this episode

• 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

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

Links for this episode

• 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!

Links for this episode

• 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.

Cindy talks with Shane Crotty about his teenage days driving 3 ½ hours every weekend to have his first research experience in marine biology, how that eventually led to studying how vaccines work and how we can make them better, and how immunology research and publishing got a turbo-boost during the pandemic.

Hosts: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Shane Crotty

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

Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Immune 85 discusses Crotty lab paper on human upper airway immunity
• Shane Crotty on TWiV657 SARS-CoV-2 immunity
• Shane Crotty on TWiV684 Persistence of SARS-CoV memory
• Shane on TWiV802 Another epitope
• 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.

The Immune team goes up the nose to discuss cytotoxic T cells activating complement through secretion of granzyme K to drive inflammatory nasal polyps and how IgA-producing B cells are made in the nose.

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

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

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• CD8 T cells in recurrent airway inflammation (Nature 2025)
• Where IgA producing B cells arise that protect the nose (Nature 2024)
• 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.

 

From the 2024 Society for Leukocyte Biology meeting, Cindy and Brianne talk with Darren Lee to discuss his career, how he got interested in immunology of the eye, and how his team visualizes immune responses of the eye in real time with the hope of better understanding autoimmune uveitis.

Hosts: Cindy Leifer and Brianne Barker

Guest: Darren Lee

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

Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• The eye is an immunosuppressive environment (Adv Drug Delivery Rev 2023)
• Tregs control autoimmune uveitis (Sci Rep 2025)
• TIGIT, Tregs, and autoimmune uveitis (J Leuk Biol 2024)
• 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.

Vincent and Cindy discuss differences between MPox-specific T cell responses following infection and vaccination, and lymph node macrophage control of memory B cell localization and trafficking that might be important for choosing which arm to get a vaccine.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Cindy Leifer

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

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Different T memory response to MPox infection or vaccination (Nat Comm 2025)
• Macrophages direct B cell recall responses after vaccination (Cell 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.