The Immunology Podcast

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Guest:

Dr. Dan Littman is a Professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He discusses how his lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate T cell development and differentiation, including the role of RORγt in shaping immune cell identity and function. He also explores the discovery of unconventional antigen-presenting cells involved in immune tolerance, how the gut microbiome influences T cell responses and cancer immunotherapy, and the potential of emerging technologies to uncover the complex interactions between microbes and the immune system.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Sugar Disrupts the Microbiome – High sugar intake during antibiotic treatment worsens gut microbiome disruption and promotes Enterococcus expansion.

Diet Shapes Immunotherapy Toxicity – Diet and gut microbiota influence immunotherapy side effects, revealing potential ways to reduce inflammation.

Tregs Support Intestinal Recovery– Intestinal epithelial NF-κB signaling recruits regulatory T cells to promote inflammation resolution and tissue repair.

PPARδ Boosts Anti-Tumor Immunity – Activating PPARδ enhances T cell metabolism and anti-tumor activity, improving immunotherapy responses in preclinical models.

Image courtesy of Dr. Dan Littman

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Guest:

Dr. Pere Santamaria is a Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary and Group Leader at the Barcelona Institute. He discusses how his lab studies the mechanisms underlying autoimmune diseases, with a focus on regulatory T cell biology and antigen-specific immune tolerance. He also explains how his team developed a nanomedicine platform that reprograms autoreactive T cells into regulatory cells, offering a targeted approach to treating autoimmune disorders without suppressing normal immune function, and shares the challenges of translating this technology from the lab to the clinic.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Maternal Vaccine Against GBS – A Phase I/II trial shows that a maternal hexavalent Group B Streptococcus vaccine is safe and elicits robust antibody responses in both mothers and infants.

Decoding Treg Differentiation – TCR specificity and antigen presentation context determine regulatory T cell differentiation and phenotype, providing a framework for antigen-specific immune tolerance.

A Microbiota–Autoimmunity Axis – Disrupted dendritic cell development promotes gut dysbiosis that drives inflammatory dendritic cell expansion and systemic autoimmunity.

Programming Regulatory T Cells – Arginine availability regulates MHC class I antigen presentation, influencing antiviral immunity and cancer development.

Image courtesy of Dr. Pere Santamaria.

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Guest:

Dr. Brian Brown is a Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He discusses how his lab develops innovative technologies to study the immune system and advance new therapeutics, from T cell engineering to mRNA-based medicines. He also explores how microRNA-guided targeting can improve the precision of mRNA therapeutics, how different tissues shape immune responses, and the importance of effective science communication.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Sindbis in Cerebrospinal Fluid– Scientists have found evidence that Sindbis virus can invade the human central nervous system and cause neurological disease.

A Skin–Lung Reflex – Activation of sensory neurons in the skin suppresses allergic airway inflammation through a vagus nerve–mediated neuroimmune reflex.

Microbiome Enhances Cancer Immunity – Gut bacteria promote anti-tumor immunity by converting tryptophan into indoles that enhance immune responses and inhibit melanoma growth.

Macrophages Drive Healthy Aging– Restoring macrophage clearance of senescent neutrophils reverses age-related decline across multiple organs in mice by blocking EP2 signaling.

Image courtesy of Dr. Brian Brown

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Guest:

Dr. Andrew Hogan is a Professor and Principal Investigator of the Obesity Immunology Research Group at Maynooth University. He discusses how obesity drives chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction, increasing the risk of diseases such as diabetes and cancer, while highlighting the immune system’s role in disease progression. He also explains how GLP-1 therapies improve both metabolism and immune function, offering new insights into obesity treatment.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Innate Immunity Predicts Symptoms – Stronger innate immune responses predisposed people to influenza symptoms while also promoting antiviral immune activation.

Broad HIV Neutralization #1 – A novel HIV immunogen induced broadly neutralizing antibodies in macaques, providing a promising blueprint for HIV vaccine development.

Broad HIV Neutralization #2 – A germline-targeting vaccine induced broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies in nonhuman primates.

CAR-T Targets Glioblastoma – A dual-targeting CAR-T therapy achieved durable glioblastoma control in preclinical models.

Image courtesy of Dr. Andrew Hogan

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Guest:

Dr. Marco Orecchioni is an Assistant Professor at Augusta University. He discusses how olfactory receptors — best known for detecting smells — also function in innate immune cells such as macrophages, where they help sense chemical cues in the tissue environment. He highlights how these receptors regulate inflammation, metabolism, and immune cell behavior in diseases such as atherosclerosis, and explores their potential as novel therapeutic targets.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Origins of Tumor Macrophages – Tumor-associated myeloid cells arise from distinct circulating monocyte clones with pre-programmed differentiation fates.

DDX6 Restrains Tumor Immunity – DDX6 suppresses dsRNA-driven innate immunity by limiting RNA editing.

Antibody-Directed Xenophagy – TRIM21 directs antibody-bound pathogens into a newly identified autophagy pathway that promotes intracellular pathogen clearance.

RNA Warfare in Plant Immunity – A fungal long non-coding RNA suppresses rice immunity by sequestering a host microRNA.

Image courtesy of Dr. Marco Orecchioni.

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Guest:

Dr. Shabaana Khader is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Chicago. She discusses how the immune system responds to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, why tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, and the challenges of developing more effective vaccines. She highlights the role of lung-resident immunity, including Th17 responses and lymphoid structures, in controlling infection, and explains how advances in our understanding of host–pathogen interactions are guiding the design of next-generation TB vaccines.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Personalized HPV Cancer Vaccine – A multifunctional nanovaccine combining HPV antigens, tumor membranes, and bacterial adjuvants generates durable anti-tumor immunity against HPV-associated cervical cancer.

HIV Rewires T Cell Identity – HIV can reprogram infected CD4+ T cells into CD8+ T cells, revealing a previously unrecognized component of the viral reservoir.

Decoding Acute Pancreatitis – A single-cell atlas of severe acute pancreatitis identifies a TNF-α–driven immune-endothelial circuit that causes microvascular failure and disease progression.

Discovery of Ruptoblasts – A newly discovered cell type, the ruptoblast, protects planarians through an explosive cytotoxic mechanism termed ruptosis.

Image courtesy of Dr. Shabaana Khader

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Guest:

Dr. Samuel Nobs is an Assistant Professor and Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland. He discusses how microbes in the lungs and gut may shape respiratory immunity and influence susceptibility to infections and chronic lung diseases. He highlights his lab’s work to uncover the mechanisms behind these interactions using microbiome analysis and advanced experimental models.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Rabbit Immunity Evolves – Wild rabbits rapidly evolved resistance to myxoma virus through changes in highly diverse MHC immune genes.

Antifungal Receptors Improve Vaccines – Targeting antifungal immune receptors with a mannan-based adjuvant boosts the strength, durability, and variant coverage of mRNA vaccine responses.

Mapping Tumor Macrophage Diversity – Scientists have revealed how diverse tumor-associated macrophage subtypes promote tumor growth, immune suppression, and metastasis through interactions within the tumor microenvironment.

Dietary Soy Shapes Immunity – Dietary soy shapes the gut microbiome to boost IgA-mediated immunity and enhance protection against intestinal infection in early life.

Image courtesy of Dr. Samuel Nobs.

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Guest:

Dr. Tullia Bruno is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She discusses how B cells and tertiary lymphoid structures shape anti-tumor immunity within solid tumors, challenging the traditional T cell–centric view of cancer immunology. She highlights how these immune niches influence responses to immunotherapy, the importance of spatial organization within the tumor microenvironment, and emerging strategies to therapeutically induce tertiary lymphoid structures to improve cancer treatment.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Feeding Boosts T Cell Immunity – Postprandial metabolism enhances T cell fitness and improves effector and CAR-T cell function through chylomicron-driven metabolic reprogramming.

Chemokines Control T Cell Priming – CCR7 signaling limits CD8+ T cell interactions with dendritic cells to preserve effective effector and memory responses.

Helminths Boost Offspring Immunity– Maternal helminth-driven microbiome changes protect offspring from respiratory viruses through the metabolite indole-3-propionic acid.

Enhancing CAR T Persistence – CAR-modified stem-cell memory T cells show improved persistence, expansion, and anti-tumor responses compared to standard CAR T cells.

Image courtesy of Dr. Tullia Bruno.

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Guest:

Dr. Alfred Singer is a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research. He discusses his pioneering work on thymus development and T cell differentiation, including how T cells are selected to become CD4 helper or CD8 cytotoxic cells through MHC-restricted signaling. He shares the evolution of key concepts in the field, such as the “kinetic signaling” model of lineage commitment, and offers insights into T cell receptor signaling, regulatory T cell development, and the complexities of immune cell fate decisions.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

CEACAM6 Enables Viral Entry – Bat alphacoronavirus enters human cells via CEACAM6, revealing potential for zoonotic transmission.

Cross-Dressing Drives T Cell Priming – mRNA vaccines activate CD8+ T cells through redundant dendritic cell pathways and cross-dressing mechanisms.

Unlocking NK Antitumor Responses – Removing tumor Tregs unleashes NK cell responses to control cancers, including MHC I–deficient tumors.

RUNX1 Controls Immune Aging – A single-cell immune aging clock identifies RUNX1 as a key regulator of T cell senescence and rejuvenation.

Image courtesy of Dr. Alfred Singer

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In April 2026, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists, in Boston. We spoke with delegates about their research and impressions of the meeting, including why they attended, the most memorable science they encountered, and their experiences in Boston.

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Guest:

This special episode was recorded in front of a live audience at IMMUNOLOGY2026 in Boston. Brenda and Jason sit down with Dr. Charles Sentman, Director of the Center for Synthetic Immunity at Dartmouth College, and Dr. Giulia Escobar, Director of Pre-Clinical Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, to explore new strategies aimed at overcoming the unique challenges of treating solid tumors. They focus on real-world challenges in CAR T and NK cell therapies, including barriers to treating solid tumors, manufacturing and accessibility hurdles, and emerging applications beyond oncology, such as autoimmunity and neurodegenerative disease.

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Image courtesy of [Drs. Charles Sentman and Giulia Escobar]

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Guest:

In April 2026, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Boston, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the last of five special episodes from the meeting. Jason and Brenda discuss highlights from sessions on advances in translational immunology, including immune-targeting strategies for autoimmune disease, as well as new insights into emerging technologies to map T cell receptor specificity.

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Guest:

In April 2026, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Boston, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the fourth of five special episodes from the meeting. Jason and Brenda discuss highlights from talks about immunometabolic dysfunction in disease and neuroimmune interactions in inflammation and allergy.

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Guest:

In April 2026, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Boston, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the third of five special episodes from the meeting. Brenda and Jason discuss highlights from sessions on obesity, immunometabolism, microbiome-driven immunity, antigen presentation, and new immunotherapy strategies.

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Guest:

In April 2026, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2026, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Boston, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the second of five special episodes from the meeting. Jason and Brenda cover new insights into microbiome–immune interactions, including bacterial influences on cancer and inflammatory disease, as well as advances in mucosal and early-life immunity.

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