The Immunology Podcast

Guest:

Dr. John Wherry is the Director of the Institute for Immunology and Immune Health at the University of Pennsylvania. He discusses how T cell exhaustion develops during chronic infections and cancer, and why it may serve as a protective adaptation rather than simply a dysfunctional immune state. He also explores how epigenetic regulation shapes exhausted T cell differentiation, the potential of emerging gene-editing and delivery technologies to manipulate T cell function, and the opportunities and limitations of artificial intelligence in advancing immunology research.

Featured Products and Resources:

Check out the Immunology Profile series where immunologists share their stores, discuss their research and voice their thoughts on current topics

Optimize your T cell workflow and get high yields of viable T cells with this free webinar

The Immunology Science Round Up

IRF4 Regulates Treg Cell Identity – Researchers have identified an IRF4 regulatory element that drives inflammatory reprogramming and loss of suppressive function in human regulatory T cells, revealing a potential target for improving Treg therapies.

γδ T Cells Require TCR Signaling – Tissue-resident γδ T cells depend on T cell receptor signaling for their rapid, innate-like responses to tissue stress and cancer, revealing a key mechanism of immune surveillance.

Bacterial LPS Trains Lung Immunity – Low-dose Pseudomonas aeruginosa LPS enhances lung-resident NK cell activity through C3aR1 signaling, providing microbiota-dependent protection against bacterial pneumonia in mice.

BATF+ Tregs Mark Early Lung Cancer – BATF-expressing regulatory T cells expand across blood and lung tissues during early lung cancer development, providing potential targets for monitoring and preventing disease progression.

Image courtesy of Dr. John Wherry









































Subscribe to our newsletter!

Never miss updates about new episodes.

Subscribe

Guest:

Dr. Merav Cohen is a Principal Investigator at Tel Aviv University. She discusses how her lab uses single-cell technologies to decode communication between immune cells and their surrounding tissues. She explores how physical interactions can reprogram macrophages and neutrophils, how these cells communicate with tumor cells, and how cellular crosstalk can promote angiogenesis, tumor growth, and cancer progression.

Featured Products and Resources:

Stay up-to-date with the latest reesarch and news in human immunology news.

Download a free wallchart on the overview of human NK cell receptors.

The Immunology Science Round Up

Mapping T Cells in Diabetes – Multimodal profiling reveals distinct inflammatory and differentiation states of CD8+ T cells across pancreatic lymph nodes and pancreatic tissue in Type 1 diabetes.

Balancing the Inflammatory Response – IRF2 restrains inflammation by limiting IRF1-driven immune gene expression, revealing a transcriptional switch that regulates innate immune responses.

Interferon Reshapes Stem Cell Fate – Interferon-α reshapes hematopoietic stem cell differentiation in myeloproliferative neoplasms, while disease-causing mutations alter how stem cells respond to treatment.

The Gut–Brain Immune Connection – Gut infections send activated CD4+ T cells to the brain’s borders, where they establish long-lived immune memory against intestinal microbes.

Image courtesy of Dr. Merav Cohen









































Subscribe to our newsletter!

Never miss updates about new episodes.

Subscribe

Guest:

Dr. Roger Geiger is a Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and leads a research group at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany. He discusses how his lab studies the metabolic regulation of T cell function and explores engineering bacteria to deliver therapeutic payloads directly to tumors. He also explains how arginine metabolism can enhance anti-tumor T cell responses and how naïve T cells remain metabolically prepared to rapidly respond to immune challenges.

Featured Products and Resources:

Stay up-to-date with the latest in cell therapy news.

Download a free wallchart on the production of CAR T cells.

The Immunology Science Round Up

C. difficile Shapes Gut Development– Early-life C. difficile exposure alters intestinal stem cell behavior and leaves lasting changes in gut development.

The Serotonin–Asthma Connection– ILC2-derived serotonin amplifies airway inflammation and activates sensory neurons to promote asthma and cough hypersensitivity.

IgA Fuels Liver Inflammation – IgA binding to liver myeloid cells is associated with IL-1-linked inflammation and liver injury in alcohol-associated liver disease.

Serotonin Drives Severe COVID-19 – Platelet-derived serotonin promotes blood clotting and lung dysfunction during SARS-CoV-2 infection, helping explain greater disease severity with age.

Image courtesy of Dr. Roger Geiger









































Subscribe to our newsletter!

Never miss updates about new episodes.

Subscribe

Guest:

Dr. Martin Prlic is a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. He discusses the challenges of studying human immunology and how his lab uses advanced single-cell technologies to understand T cell responses across healthy, inflamed, and tumor tissues. He also explores the biology of tissue-resident T cells, how inflammation shapes their function, and immune cell interactions at the maternal-fetal interface.

Featured Products and Resources:

Decorate your lab with a Nature Protocols wallchart outlining the production of therapeutic CAR T cells.

Find high-quality antibodies and integrate them into your workflow!

The Immunology Science Round Up

lncRNA Regulates Gut Immunity – An IBD-associated long noncoding RNA promotes immune tolerance by enhancing regulatory T cell function and limiting inflammatory T cell responses.

Trust in Research Antibodies – An investigation identified nearly 19,000 apparently manipulated antibody validation images across products sold by 15 research antibody vendors.

Targeting Melanoma with mRNA – A Phase III trial found that a personalized mRNA neoantigen therapy combined with KEYTRUDA improved recurrence-free and distant metastasis-free survival compared with KEYTRUDA alone after melanoma surgery.

Beyond Shingles Prevention – A recombinant shingles vaccine was associated with a lower long-term risk of several cardiovascular outcomes, supporting further studies of its potential cardioprotective effects.

Engineering Myeloid Immunotherapy – Expandable granulocyte-monocyte progenitors provide a scalable platform for engineering macrophages that can target blood and solid tumors.

CAR T Cells Meet Glioblastoma – Responses to CAR T cell therapy for glioblastoma are associated with the surrounding immune environment, with NK cells linked to response and regulatory T cells and suppressive myeloid cells linked to resistance.

Image courtesy of Dr. Martin Prlic









































Subscribe to our newsletter!

Never miss updates about new episodes.

Subscribe

Guest:

Dr. Miriam Merad is Director of the Precision Immunology Institute and a Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She discusses how myeloid progenitors and macrophages shape the tumor microenvironment, and how dendritic cells support tertiary lymphoid structures and anti-tumor immunity. She also explores the role of chronic inflammation in aging and disease, and shares her perspective on the importance of biomedical research in protecting human health.

Featured Products and Resources:

Get a free wallchart of the frequencies of human cell types in blood-related sources.

Subscribe to Human Immunology News to keep up with the latest news, research, policy, and jobs in the community.

The Immunology Science Round Up

Viral Reactivation in COVID-19 – Chronic viruses frequently reactivate during severe COVID-19, with distinct patterns associated with inflammation, disease severity, recovery, and long COVID.

Safer Antibodies During Pregnancy – Fusing therapeutic antibodies to albumin reduces their transfer across the placenta while preserving prolonged circulation, offering a strategy to limit fetal drug exposure during pregnancy.

Self-Sustaining Regulatory T Cells – Engineering regulatory T cells with a self-sustaining IL-2 signaling system improves their persistence and ability to prevent autoimmune diabetes in mice.

Where Tuberculosis Persists – Mycobacterium tuberculosis persists in lymph nodes by forming infected monocyte-derived niches that evade recognition by Mtb-specific T cells despite activating antimicrobial responses.

Image courtesy of Dr. Miriam Merad.









































Subscribe to our newsletter!

Never miss updates about new episodes.

Subscribe