Exhausted Immune Cells: the Weary Veterans of Chronic Infection
Hey, everyone. I was a guest on the In Plain English: Science made Simple podcast in November 2022 where I joined immunology PhD candidate Christina Niavi and fellow guest Alex Barrett to discuss exhausted immune cells. immune cells: what happens during chronic infections and cancer, and how we can use this to develop better treatments for these diseases. You can listen here.
The In Plain English show’s goal is make scientific research more approachable by having one expert guest answer questions on a paper in their field of research to two layperson guests who are learning about this subject for the first time. If you know anything about me, I was totally out of my area of expertise. Well, I knew we have an immune system, which plays a vital role in protecting us against invading pathogens. I had some idea that T-cells existed, which I learned about at the start of the pandemic and the role they played in fighting out disease.
Review papers are a great way to understand a field as it summarizes existing literature to explain current understanding on a particular topic. It does not present any new research or findings but it is a great way for someone to start out and get a fairly good understanding of a field without having to read all the previous papers in the field. Tip: if a review paper does not exist for your chosen field, write one. It will get cited. Here is the paper we had to read and discuss.
Honestly, there was so much information and I think I barely understood anything after reading the paper. But then again, this type of paper will take you some time to read and digest and I just had a few days to go through it. With that said. it was a fun experience and I learned a lot about the immune system.