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Nature Methods 6, 489–490 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nmeth0709-489

Finding multiple needles in one immune haystack

Katherine Kedzierska , John Stambas & Peter C Doherty

The CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response functions primarily to eliminate viruses and some bacteria, parasites and tumors. CTLs use on the order of 25 million different T cell receptors (TCRs) to recognize a potentially unlimited number of viral (or other) peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex class I glycoproteins (pMHCI) on antigen-presenting cells.