How our immune system teaches our cells to “behave”
At a very early stage of a T-cell-to-be, an immature immune cell will enter the thymus and receive a variety of important information, which allows it to develop and mature in this organ. At some point during this process, our T-cell-to-be is required to pass an “exam” composed of two simple but crucial questions. The first question is, “Are you a functional T cell?” If the answer is yes, this developing T cell-to-be must answer a second question: “Are you going to kill enemies or friends?”
Hitting the brakes: how PD-1 stops T cells from fighting
PD-1 is part of a group of proteins that helps promote balance during an immune response. Together, these are known as immune checkpoints. These “break” proteins help decrease the function of our T cell soldiers, which is good as we don’t want our great fighters killing when there is nothing to kill.
A natural way to make better antibodies
Last week, I was scrolling through social media, and this ad came out talking about some “miracle” smoothie. This juice promised to give my immune system some superpower, allowing me to have better antibodies to fight any cold or viral infection that hit my way. Well, I have to say that, sadly, there is no […]
T regulatory cells: the firefighters of the immune system
It was like a quiet summer day until one of your internal fighters decided to attack and kill some of your healthy cells. But it doesn’t stop there. The death of these cells starts a “fire”. That is when the T regulatory cells come into action!
I’m not lazy, it’s called selective participation – Explaining T cell anergy
Our internal mechanism of defence (known as the immune system) is made of many different cell types that together help protect us against infections and cancer. Today we are talking (again) about my favourite cell type, called T cell. To do their job, they need to receive specific signals allowing them to be activated and ready to […]
How viral mutation can impact the immune system (feat. Dr. Pardy)
I’m delighted to continue the interview series with trainees in immunology around the world. In this post, I’m featuring Dr. Ryan Pardy, an outstanding postdoctoral fellow from Dr. Christopher Hunter’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. I’m fortunate that Ryan accepted my invitation, as he is not only one of my “role model scientists” but […]
Do T cells ever get “tired”? An introduction to T cell exhaustion
Two weeks ago I did a road trip with my (now) fiancé and our beautiful dog. We visited cities in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. We had an amazing time, but as soon as we got home there were a million chores to do (unpacking, laundry, groceries, etc). I was so tired […]
“I have a message for you”: an introduction on mRNA vaccines
I’m almost 100% sure that you have received a message today. Maybe an email, an SMS or a text on any of your social media accounts. We are all being bombarded with messages every single day, telling us to do this, and that. The funny thing is… it is not that different inside of our […]
Glioblastoma: a deadly game of hide and seek
It is the start of a new year. New goals, new planner, new routines. We know exactly what we have to do, when we have to do it, and we are ready to start strong! It is like a new cycle. Although nothing has truly changed from December 31st at 11:59 pm to January 1st […]
The thymus: from earth to space
Guess what, today I’m going to talk about the coolest organ of them all, one that does not get as much attention as it deserves (some bias was added to this sentence). This organ ensures the development of our immune cells which are specialized in fighting infection and cancer. Yes, we will be talking about […]
