Human adaptive immunity against viral infections

Memory CD8 T cells arise following infection from a heterogenous population of effector T cells that contains cells of various differentiation states. Many of these effector CD8 T cells develop into end-stage terminal effector cells that die following infection and a smaller portion develops into cells with greater memory cell potential and longevity. Understanding how effector CD8 T cell differentiation is regulated to generate cells of diverse cell fates is important and much progress has been made in identifying several transcriptional factors that regulate effector and memory cell fates, function and phenotypes. In this talk we will discuss how memory T cells form during infection and are specialized into distinct subsets that maximizes the way in which they provide immunosurveillance throughout the body and long-term protective immunity.