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Owing to recent advances in imaging technology, the behaviour of B cells in germinal centres can now be visualized in three dimensionsin vivo. What have we learnt from such studies and how might this change our understanding of antibody affinity maturation?
Several diseases are associated with reduced numbers of natural killer T (NKT) cells. The authors of this Review ask what drives NKT-cell development in the thymus and what factors ensure NKT-cell survival, maturation and function in the periphery?
Could xenotransplantation using pigs as the transplant source solve the severe shortage of human organ donors? This Review describes the recent advances that are helping to bring this approach closer to the clinic and the obstacles that still need to be overcome.
What determines whether a T cell lives or dies? And how are the signals that induce apoptosis regulated? Here, Peter Krammer and colleagues discuss the most recent advances in our understanding of the molecular switches that regulate life and death in T cells.
Distinct dendritic-cell subsets have differing antigen-presenting capabilities. Here, the authors discuss their distinct roles in immunity and maintaining self tolerance, and the unexpected interactions between the subsets that enhance the ability to respond to different modes of infection.
The filoviruses Ebola and Marburg use several different and effective mechanisms to both evade and battle the immune system. This Review explores recent findings in the filovirus–host-defence clash, and highlights the crucial areas in which additional research is necessary.
What is immune computing? Can the immune system compute? Does it use a computational strategy to function? In this Opinion article, Irun Cohen proposes that the answer to these questions is yes, and applies these ideas to different types of immunity.
