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T CELL PROFILING

Specificity meets function

Nature Immunology volume 20, pages 1565–1567 (2019)Cite this article

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Specificity and function are the two main aspects that define T cell biology. A new report provides a technology that allows simultaneous assessment of both at the single-cell level.

Tu et al. provide evidence that this method can be used both in humans and in mouse model systems1. In mice, they define the clonal evolution of T cells after immunization with a vaccine that targets the human papilloma virus antigen E7 both in vivo and ex vivo. While it is not surprising that a strong antigen in a defined mouse model leads to the expansion of clonal T cell populations, the illustration of distinct functional activities of clonally expanded T cells nicely exemplifies the fact that novel T cell biology is revealed when combined assessment of specificity and functional programs is applied to thousands of individual T cells. More specifically, Tu et al. identify groups of distinct T cell clones that differ in the magnitude of their transcriptional response or in their transcriptional programs, such as signatures associated with cytotoxic effector function in highly expanded T cell clones versus central memory programs in clones with less expansion1.

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Fig. 1: Method for simultaneously determining T cell specificity and T cell function, and the applicability of this method.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genomics and Immunoregulation, Life & Medical Sciences (LIMES) Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim L. Schultze

  2. Platform for Single Cell Genomics and Epigenomics, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim L. Schultze

  3. ImmunoSensation2, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim L. Schultze

  4. West German Genome Center, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim L. Schultze

  5. Central Coordination Unit, NGS Competence Center, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Joachim L. Schultze

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  1. Joachim L. Schultze
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Correspondence to Joachim L. Schultze.

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Schultze, J.L. Specificity meets function. Nat Immunol 20, 1565–1567 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-019-0540-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-019-0540-9

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