Some of the most successful vaccines to date, including those against smallpox, measles, mumps, and rubella, comprise attenuated viral particles that induce both humoral (B cell-mediated) and cellular (T cell-mediated) immunity. Yet, current vaccine design focuses heavily on inducing robust antibody responses, often neglecting to evaluate clinically relevant cellular immune responses. For pathogens such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer, because live infection is not feasible, alternative vaccine strategies are needed. We aim to determine the mechanisms governing vaccine-elicited T cell responses, which we believe may uncover novel targets for the development of more effective prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.
We recently made the surprising discovery that B cells significantly enhance CD8 T cell memory responses to vaccination. In the process of investigating this phenomenon, we made the equally surprising discovery that B cells also help maintain naïve CD8 T cell homeostasis. Our ongoing work largely focuses on defining the factors responsible for this previously unidentified collaboration between cellular and humor immunity.
