The Immunology Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Guest:

Dr. Kipp Weiskopf is a Valhalla Fellow at the Whitehead Institute. His research focuses on unlocking the therapeutic potential of macrophages for the benefit of cancer patients. He talks about the role of macrophages in the tumor environment and how targeting the CD47/SIRPα axis can induce phagocytosis of cancer cells. He also discusses starting spin-off companies to advance cancer therapies.

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The Immunology Round Up

Organoids with an Immune Compartment – Researchers generated human intestinal immuno-organoids to investigate intestinal inflammation triggered by cancer-targeting biologics in patients.

Gene Repression in Tregs – The transcription factor Ikaros binds to Foxp3 to inhibit the expression of target genes in Tregs.

γδ T-Cell Antigen Receptor Structure – Scientists used cryo-electron microscopy to determine the structure of of the T-cell receptor found on the surface of γδ T cells.

Autoimmune Organ Damage – Tissue-resident NKp46+ innate lymphoid cells are crucial signal amplifiers of disease-associated macrophage expansion and epithelial cell injury in lupus nephritis.

Image courtesy of Dr. Kipp Weiskopf

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Guest:

Dr. Adrian Erlebacher is a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. His lab studies how the developmental properties of a tissue influence its ability to mount a successful immune response. He talks about immune tolerance in pregnancy and how the maternal–fetal interface affects pregnancy outcomes.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Immune Cells in the Skull – The glioblastoma-linked immune-cell niche in the human skull provides an unanticipated resource and concept of acute tumor reactivity in the proximal bone marrow.

Nasal Vaccine Reactions – Nasal vaccination induces B cell expansion in the subepithelial dome of nasal-associated lymphoid tissues.

Airway Microbiota Across the Lifespan – Lifestyle factors are related to oral microbiota and environment is related to nasopharyngeal microbiota.

Tregs in the Gut – Researchers used a chemogenetic screen to reveal functional neuroimmune interactions in the gut.

Image courtesy of Dr. Adrian Erlebacher

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In May 2024, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2024, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Chicago, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the final of five special episodes from the meeting, where Brenda and Jason talk about sessions including the dysfunction of exhaustive T cells enforced by MCT11-mediated lactate metabolism and extrafollicular differentiated B cells, presented by former podcast guest Dr. Frances Lund.

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Guests:

Dr. Judy Lieberman is a Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and holds an Endowed Chair in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Caroline Junqueira is an Investigator at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School. Their recent research focuses on the role of γδ T cells in malaria.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

How Viruses Cause Pyroptosis – Bcl-2 members MCL-1 and BCL-xL sense translation inhibition during viral infection, leading to Gasdermin E-dependent pyroptosis.

Aging the Immune System – Researchers selectively deleted Ercc1, which encodes a crucial DNA repair protein, to increase senescence in the immune systems of mice, leading to systemic aging.

Thymic Development of Microbiota-Specific T Cells – Scientists showed that intestinal colonization in early life leads to the trafficking of microbial antigens from the intestine to the thymus by intestinal dendritic cells, which then induce the expansion of microbiota-specific T cells.

Antibody-Dependent Inflammation in COVID-19 – Researchers found that in patients with severe COVID-19, high titers and low fucosylation of anti-spike IgG leads to excessive inflammatory responses by alveolar macrophages.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Drs. Judy Lieberman and Caroline Junqueira

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Guests:

Dr. Carl June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Philipp Rommel is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the June lab. Together, they are interested in lymphocyte biology, with a major translational focus on ex vivo T cell engineering for cancer and HIV cell-based therapies.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Pooled CRISPR Screening Identifies m6A RNA as a Regulator of Macrophage Activation – Scientists identified METTL3-mediated m6A modification in innate immune responses suggesting the m6A machinery could be a target for immunotherapy.

Natural Killer Receptors Fine-Tune T Cells – Researchers identified a role for natural killer cell receptor signaling in regulating self/non-self discrimination by HLA-E–restricted T cells.

Notch4 Signaling in Viral Infections – Notch4 expression on Treg cells suppressed the induction of amphiregulin and promoted severe lung inflammation in viral infections.

Synthetic Notch CAR T Cells Targeting Solid Tumors in Mice – Scientists developed synthetic Notch CAR T cells targeting solid tumor antigens and used them to treat mouse models of mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and glioblastoma.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Drs. Carl June and Philipp Rommel

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Guest:

Dr. Bernardo Franklin is a Professor at the University of Bonn. His lab studies the role of innate immunity in sterile inflammation and in infectious diseases. More recently, their research has focused on blood platelets and their effects on innate immunity, systemic inflammation and cancer.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

T Cell Mediated Cross-Reactivity between Seasonal Coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2 – Researchers found that CD8+ T cells specific for an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope cross-react with selective seasonal coronaviruses.

COVID-19 Recovered Individuals May Only Require a Single mRNA Vaccine Dose – In individuals who have already recovered from COVID-19, a single mRNA vaccine dose was sufficient to achieve peak antibody and memory B cell responses.

Forcing Cancer Out of “Stealth Mode” – DNA methyl transferase inhibitors alter the surface proteome and mediate cytoskeletal reorganization, priming γδ T cells to kill lung cancer cells.

Maternal Treg Cells Can Reverse Behavioral Abnormalities in Adult Mouse Offspring  – Behavioral abnormalities caused by maternal immune activation could be rescued by transferring pathogen-activated maternal Treg cells.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Bernardo Franklin

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Guests:

Drs. Mindy, Amy, and Kristen Engevik are sisters and immunologists. Dr. Mindy Engevik is an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her lab studies microbial-host crosstalk with an emphasis on microbe-mucus interactions.

Dr. Amy Engevik is also an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her lab focuses on the role of Myosin Vb in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal disorders and liver cholestasis.

Dr. Kristen Engevik is a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research aims to elucidate the molecular consequences of purinergic signaling in gastrointestinal physiology and rotavirus pathophysiology, with the ultimate goal of providing further insight to improve vaccines against rotavirus.

Featured Products and Resources:

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• Explore scientific resources for your immunology research at the STEMCELL Technologies Immunology Learning Center.

The Immunology Science Round Up

Chronic Immune Response in Severe COVID-19 Does Not Target SARS-CoV-2 – Researchers found that in patients with severe COVID-19, TGF-β is a key regulator of the chronic immune response, and in prolonged cases, this response is no longer directed at SARS-CoV-2.

Regulatory T Cells in Tumors and Tissues – Scientists performed single-cell chromatin accessibility profiling of tissue-resident and circulatory regulatory T (Treg) cells, and showed that several surface proteins that were thought to be tumor-specific were also expressed in Treg cells in normal tissue.

Mapping the Immune Landscape in Glioblastomas – Researchers used single-cell profiling to study the glioblastoma immune landscape and found that microglia-derived tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) dominated in newly diagnosed tumors, but were outnumbered by monocyte-derived TAMs following recurrence.

T Cells Persist in Melanoma Patients Who Respond Well to Immunotherapy – In metastatic melanoma survivors with exceptional responses to immunotherapy, scientists found T cell clonotypes from tumors in skin and blood up to nine years later.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Drs. Mindy, Amy, and Kristen Engevik

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Guest:

Dr. Filipe Pereira is an Associate Professor at the Lund Stem Cell Center at Lund University. The Pereira lab studies how hematopoietic cell fate is specified, maintained, and eventually modified or reversed. Inspired by the fields of stem cell biology, immunology, and cancer, they use an interdisciplinary approach to mechanistically understand hematopoietic and immune cell identities and translate their findings into novel gene and cell therapies.

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The Immunology Science Round Up

Resident T Cells Stay at Home – Researchers examined how immunity is integrated within adult mouse tissues and observed durable maintenance of resident memory T cells up to 450 days after infection.

Bacteria-Derived Peptides Found inside Tumors – Scientists identified a peptide repertoire derived from intracellular bacteria that was presented on HLA-I and HLA-II molecules in melanoma tumors.

Gamma Delta T Cells Link Immunity to Nutrition – Researchers analyzed mice fed a high-carbohydrate versus a high-protein diet and observed remodeling of the small intestinal epithelium in response to dietary carbohydrates.

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) Activate Innate Immune Sensor cGAS – In mice, NETs stimulated interferon production in a cGAS-dependent manner, suggesting that cGAS acts as a sensor of NETs to stimulate immune responses during infection.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Filipe Pereira

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In March of 2021, the Immunology Podcast will be launching with the goal of creating an accessible, entertaining, and educational resource for scientists to keep current on the latest developments in immunology research. The hosts, Drs. Brenda Raud and Jason Goldsmith, will cover the latest scientific advances and interview key immunology influencers about their work and perspectives on the field.

The Immunology Podcast is owned and produced by STEMCELL Technologies, a global biotechnology company based out of Vancouver, Canada. STEMCELL provides the podcast under their Science Communication Program, alongside several other services to keep scientists current and connected with their fields. This includes the Stem Cell Podcast, which covers groundbreaking research in the field of stem cell biology, and has amassed a global following, with more than 600,000 downloads to date.

STEMCELL Technologies supports life sciences research with more than 2,500 specialized cell culture media, cell separation tools, instruments, accessory products and educational services that are used by scientists performing immunology, stem cell, cancer, regenerative medicine, and cellular therapy research globally.

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In May 2024, we attended IMMUNOLOGY2024, the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Chicago, and recorded daily episodes discussing highlights of the previous 24 hours. Here is the fourth of five special episodes from the meeting, where Brenda and Jason highlight discussions on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, chaired by former podcast guest Dr. Kristin Anderson, as well as fueling T cell fate decision during infection with an initial focus on immunometabolism.

Featured Products and Resources:

• Download a free ebook on cell separation!

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