Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have applied an innovative approach to studying human proteins that bind to sugar molecules on the surface of human cells to discover how one crucial aspect of our immune system works. They identified the target of a regulatory molecule called CD22 that is expressed on the surface of the type of immune system cell known as the B lymphocyte.B lymphocytes, the “B” of which comes from the fact that they are created in our “bone” marrow, are one of the most important immune cells in our bodies. One of the two major types of immune cells in the adaptive immune system, they play a critical role in the body’s ability to fight off infection because they produce antibodies, which are a crucial component of the adaptive immune response to bacteria and viruses that successfully invade the body.
