A former anti-vax mom talks about going down the rabbit hole, her mindset shift, the importance of doctors who are willing to talk with patients about vaccines, and why she is now a vaccine advocate.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Ellen Mary Woods

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Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• A shot at life foundation
• Voices for Vaccines information and advocacy
• What the iPhone bendgate can teach us about vaccine hesitancy
• Tips for conversations with vaccine hesitant people
• 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.

Gabrielle Rizzuto from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center discusses her work on the curious immunology of pregnancy and how a woman tolerates a genetically different baby but quickly rejects a mismatched organ donation.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Gabrielle Rizzuto

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Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Rizzuto lab at MSKCC
• Tolerance at the fetal-maternal interface (Nature, 2022)
• The paradox of fetal-maternal tolerance (J Exp Med, 2022)
• Spatially resolved timeline of fetal-maternal interface (Nature, 2023)
• 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 tattoo ink accumulates in lymph nodes, promotes inflammation and influences response to two different vaccines.

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

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

Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• IL-9, CAR T cells and anti-tumor CD8 cells
• Tattoo ink, inflammation and vaccines
• 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.

Anna Beaudin from University of Utah talks about the key thread of her career, development, and how that influences her research on the events happening during critical prenatal windows shapes everything from the developing immune system to hearing loss.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Anna Beaudin

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Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Beaudin lab at University of Utah
• PhD work on metabolism and development
• Postdoc work on hematopoietic stem cells
• Maternal inflammation and hematopoietic stem cell development
• Prenatal inflammation effect on postnatal immunity
• Early life inflammation and hearing loss
• 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.

Leslie Berg talks about her career studying T cell receptor signaling, T cell development, and the importance of mentors in her career.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: Leslie Berg

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Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Berg lab at University of Colorado Anschutz
• TCR thresholds and ITK (PNAS)
• Review on TCR signaling (Nat Immunol)
• Generation of TCR transgenic mice (Mol Cell Bio)
• T cell negative selection in TCR transgenic mice (Nature)
• Thymic exit of mature T cells in TCR transgenic mice (Cell)
• AAI past president Berg information
• 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 whole Immune gang gathers with special guests Gretchen Diehl and Shruti Naik at The Incubator with an audience to celebrate the 100th episode.

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

Guests: Gretchen Diehl and Shruti Naik

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

Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Diehl: Gut microbe-specific T cell development (Nature 2021)
• Diehl: Bacteria-induced IL-1 is gut protective (Gut Microbes 2022)
• Diehl: Microbiota, macrophages, IL10, and colitis (Gut Microbes 2022)
• Diehl: E. coli-activated circuit restrains gut inflammation (Cell Rep 2025)
• Naik: Commensals control skin inflammation (Science 2012)
• Naik: IL-17 and hypoxic stress during skin repair (Science 2022)
• Naik: Human psoriasis and spatial transcriptomics (Sci Immunol 2023)
• 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.

David Schatz talks about his discovery of Rag genes that are critical for antigen receptor development and how that discovery depended on taking high risks and using approaches that everyone thought could never work.

Host: Cindy Leifer

Guest: David Schatz

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Links for this episode

• MicrobeTV Discord Server
• Transfer of recombinase activity in non-lymphoid cells (Cell 1988)
• Identification of the RAG-1 gene (Cell 1989)
• Evolution of a recombinase (Semin Immunol 2004)
• 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 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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Links for this episode

• 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

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

Links for this episode

• 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

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

Links for this episode

• 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.