Investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have conducted studies in mice to gain a new picture of how the immune system’s “killer” T cells are prompted to destroy infected cells. Their insights provide a blueprint for rational design of vaccines that induce desired T-cell responses. The findings are published in this week’s Science. “If we are correct, what we’ve found will put rational vaccine design on a firmer footing,” says Jonathan Yewdell, M.D., Ph.D., who led the NIAID team.
