Credit: Javier Rangel-Moreno and Shabaana Khader
Innate (green) and adaptive (red and white) immune cells in a lung surround and kill the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Africa Health Research Institute have identified a master cell that coordinates the body’s immune defenses in the crucial early days after infection. Boosting the activity of such cells could help reduce the millions of new infections that occur worldwide every year.