In this paper and the related paper from Lugli and colleagues the authors show that high levels of NaCl inside the tumor have a beneficial effect on CD8⁺ T cells and their ability to control tumor growth as a result of enhanced T cell receptor activity.

Here the authors pull apart the cellular composition of the tumor microenvironment using RNA sequencing data from a wide variety of cancer types. They identify immunity quantitative trait loci and integrate these data with analysis of colorectal cancer cohorts, creating a polygenic risk score and a database for community access.

Along with a back-to-back published paper from Zielisnki and co. in this issue of Nature Immunology, this paper shows that NaCl affects CD8⁺ T cell function by counteracting the exhaustion of these cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Seder and colleagues show that mucosal adenoviral-vectored vaccine boosting durably prevents infection in nonhuman primates of the highly transmissible, heterologous XBB.1.16 strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Seder and colleagues show that mucosal adenoviral-vectored vaccine boosting durably prevents infection in nonhuman primates of the highly transmissible, heterologous XBB.1.16 strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Here the authors pull apart the cellular composition of the tumor microenvironment using RNA sequencing data from a wide variety of cancer types. They identify immunity quantitative trait loci and integrate these data with analysis of colorectal cancer cohorts, creating a polygenic risk score and a database for community access.

In this paper and the related paper from Lugli and colleagues the authors show that high levels of NaCl inside the tumor have a beneficial effect on CD8⁺ T cells and their ability to control tumor growth as a result of enhanced T cell receptor activity.

Heim et al. investigate the role of CD8⁺ T cells specific to HBV polymerase in the context of chronic HBV infection. They identify a unique subset of CD8⁺ T cells with an attenuated effector function. The attenuation is driven by TGFβ signaling, offering new insights into the immune landscape of chronic HBV infection and suggesting potential therapeutic avenues for modulating these cells to enhance viral control.

Along with a back-to-back published paper from Zielisnki and co. in this issue of Nature Immunology, this paper shows that NaCl affects CD8⁺ T cell function by counteracting the exhaustion of these cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Here the authors present a mass cytometry-based method for identification of antigen-specific T cells and their differentiation state, testing it in cancer, bacterial and viral mouse models.

This Comment discusses the explosion in innovative systems biology approaches in infectious disease studies. We outline the numerous challenges associated with these technologies from standardizing data science approaches to reproducibility of findings, as well as cost.