Dr. Siobhan Burns is a Professor of Translational Immunology at University College London. Her group studies the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms that give rise to primary immunodeficiency disorders. She talks about how genetic mutations affect immune function, and what inborn errors of immunity can teach us about general immunology.

A Cryptic Antigen in Influenza – Researchers identified a nonclassical MHC epitope that directs the T cell response against influenza.

Drug-Resistant Malaria Parasites – Scientists generated atovaquone-resistant malaria parasites and showed that they fail to transmit by mosquito.

Transplanting Genetically Modified Pig Kidneys into Monkeys – Scientists showed that preclinical studies of renal xenotransplantation could be successfully conducted in nonhuman primates.

Dendritic Cells to Reduce Immunosuppression After Liver Transplant – Liver transplant recipients who receive regulatory dendritic cells may require less immunosuppressive drugs.

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Dr. Peter Fecci is a Professor of Neurosurgery at Duke University and the Director of the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis. His research focuses on brain tumor immunology and immunotherapy, and T cell dysfunction in glioblastoma and other intracranial cancers. He talks about activating T cells to target brain tumors and his team’s work on targeting MHC-I-negative tumor cells.

A Universal Flu Vaccine Candidate – A group 2 hemagglutinin universal influenza virus vaccine candidate protects mice against group 2 influenza viruses.

Regulatory T Cells in Muscle Function – Exercise induces a highly functional and stable muscle Treg phenotype.

An Antiviral Drug and SARS-CoV-2 Mutations – Scientists identified a mutational spectrum from viruses in patients treated with molnupiravir.

Microbial Exposure and Allergic Inflammation – Increased microbial biodiversity in mice does not protect against allergic inflammation, in contrast to what would be predicted by the hygiene hypothesis.

Image courtesy of Dr. Peter Fecci

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Dr. Alice Long is an Associate Member and Principal Investigator at Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, where her lab focuses on discovering how tolerance is lost in human autoimmunity and how therapy can restore tolerance.

Insights into B Cell Selection – Antigen-presenting autoreactive B cells play a crucial role in tolerizing T cells and suppressing tissue-specific autoimmune inflammation.

A New Perspective for IBD Management – Researchers discovered a polymorphism encoding a defective fusion protein that is correlated with inflammatory bowel disease severity.

A Neuropeptide in Type 2 Immunity – Scientists show that neuromedin U programs eosinophils to promote mucosal immunity of the small intestine.

Intestinal Antigen Recognition and Humoral Immunity – A new study shows that antigen receptor signaling and cell death resistance control intestinal humoral response zonation.

Image courtesy of Alice Long

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Dr. Kristin Anderson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, where her lab focuses on engineering T cells to overcome immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. She talks about how her cancer diagnosis changed her career focus, strategies for targeting ovarian cancer, and her transition from postdoc to professor.

Antibiotic Binding Site Mutations – Researchers studied the rifampicin binding site of E. coli RNA polymerase.

CRISPR Screens for Cancer – Scientists combined genome-wide CRISPR screens in target cancer cells to identify pathways that regulate γδ T cell killing and BTN3A cell surface expression.

Tissue-Resident T Cell Metabolism – Researchers explored the metabolic adaptations supporting differentiation, survival, and function of tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells.

Towards a Universal CAR T Cell Therapy for Blood Cancers – Epitope-edited CAR T cells were effective against patient-derived acute myeloid leukemia, B cell lymphoma, and acute T cell leukemia.

Image courtesy of Dr. Kristin Anderson

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Dr. Vinod Blachandran is an Attending Surgeon and Lab Head at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He talks about neoantigen vaccines for pancreatic cancer, what can be learned from a rare group of long-term survivors, and how surgeon-scientist mentors have influenced his career.

Platelet Factors in Aging – Platelet factors transfer the benefits of young blood to the aging mouse brain.

Cellular Immunity in Influenza – Adaptive T cells protect against symptomatic influenza infection.

Interactions Between the Immune System and the Gut Microbiome – T cells in the gut repertoire recognize several bacterial strains from complex defined communities.

Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Signaling in Lung Endothelial Cells – Aryl hydrocarbon receptor and its ligands play an important part in protecting against tissue damage following viral pathogen infection in the lung.

Image courtesy of Dr. Vinod Balachandran

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Dr. Greg Delgoffe is an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. His lab studies the intersection of metabolism and immunity in cancer. He talks about the metabolism of immune cells in cancer and the effects of nutrients in the tumor microenvironment.

Microbes in Diabetes Drug Responses – Researchers identified a microbiota-derived enzyme as a potential antidiabetic target.

STING Can Transport Protons – Scientists analyzed STING’s structure, hypothesizing that its transmembrane domain forms a pore capable of proton transport.

cGAS–STING in Neurodegeneration – The cGAS–STING signaling pathway is a critical driver of chronic inflammation and functional decline during aging.

T Cells Can Kill MHC-I Negative Tumor Cells – CD8+ T cells maintain the capacity to kill tumor cells that are entirely devoid of MHC-I expression.

Image courtesy of Dr. Greg Delgoffe

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Dr. Daniel Streicker is a Professor of Viral Ecology at the University of Glasgow, where his lab investigates pathogen transmission between species. He talks about vampire bats as a reservoir for rabies and approaches to vaccination that could prevent transmission.

Sleep Disturbance in Cardiac Disease – Sleep disruption in cardiac disease is driven by the loss of neurons that normally project from the superior cervical ganglia into the pineal gland.

Influenza Vaccine Format and Antibody Responses – Using a human tonsil organoid model, researchers tracked the differentiation and kinetics of the adaptive immune response to influenza vaccine and virus modalities.

Multipronged T Cells – Single T cells from successful immunotherapy recognize multiple cancer types.

γδ T Cells in Solid Tumors – Tumor-infiltrating γδ T cells consist of functionally distinct subsets with tumor-promoting or -restricting functions.

Image courtesy of Dr. Daniel Streicker

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Dr. Jamie Spangler is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins. Her lab implements a unique structure-based engineering approach to elucidate the determinants of protein activity and inform drug development. She talks about designing cytokine mimetics and how engineered cytokines could be used as therapeutics.

Microenvironment Reprogramming in Cancer Progression – Researchers developed a high-resolution tumor microenvironment atlas for gastric adenocarcinoma.

Tregs and Cell Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease – Co-transplanting Tregs with iPSC-derived neurons improves cell survival.

How Hepatitis C Hides from the Immune System – Flavin adenine dinucleotide capping of the hepatitis C virus protects RNA from RIG-I mediated innate immune recognition.

Mast Cells in Antigen-Avoidance – Mast cell activation in the stomach lining releases leukotrienes to affect food avoidance behavior.

Allergic Responses and Behavior Modification – Researchers showed that allergic sensitization drives antigen-specific avoidance behavior in mouse models of food allergy.

Image courtesy of Dr. Jamie Spangler

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Dr. Laura Raff is Associate Director, Sales, Immunology and Dr. Ami Ashar-Patel is a Senior Account Manager, Immunology at STEMCELL Technologies. Dr. Raff has a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Southern California and Dr. Ashar-Patel has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. They talk about their career transitions from academia to industry and how they support scientists’ research endeavors in their current roles.

Multiplexed Screening of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors – Scientists screened 1,041 human-associated metabolites against and uncovered previously unreported endogenous, exogenous, and microbial G-protein-coupled receptor agonists.

New Oral Polio Vaccines – Genetically engineered polio vaccine candidates reduce the likelihood of Sabin strains regaining fitness and neurovirulence.

Fecal Transplants and Immune Checkpoint Inhibition – Fecal microbiota transfer from healthy donors promotes resolution of refractory immune checkpoint-inhibitor mediated colitis in patients with cancer.

Macrophages in the Nervous System – Resident macrophages of the muscularis externa refine the enteric nervous system early in life.

Images courtesy of STEMCELL Technologies

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Dr. Alessandro Sette is a Center Head, Division Head, and Professor at the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology. His lab focuses on understanding the immune response, measuring immune activity, and developing disease intervention strategies against cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and infectious diseases. He talks about bringing a biotech mindset back to academia, cross-reactive T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2, and compiling an immune-epitope database.

Gut T Cells and Cancer Metastasis – A subset of CD8+ T cells from colon tumors improves control of liver tumors in a preclinical model of colorectal carcinoma.

α2-adrenergic Receptors and Immunotherapy – α2-Adrenergic receptor agonists have very strong anti-tumor activity when used as monotherapies in multiple immunocompetent tumor models.

Bacteria in Immune Checkpoint Blockade – Antibiotic-induced changes in gut microbiota resulted in relocation of immunosuppressive T cells from the gut to tumors.

Base Editing CAR T Cells – Researchers investigated the safety of base-edited CAR T cells in three children with relapsed leukemia.

Image courtesy of Dr. Alessandro Sette

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