Immunological memory has fascinated microbiologists and immunologists for decades as one of the new frontiers to conquer to better understand the response to pathogens, cancer and vaccination. Over the past decade, attention has turned to the intrinsic properties of the memory T cells themselves, as it has become clear that the eradication of both infected cells and tumors requires T cells. This book is an attempt to capture the wave of discoveries associated with these recent studies. Its chapters represent a wide collection of topics related to memory T cells by laboratories that have invested their skills and knowledge to understand the biology and the principles upon which memory T cells are generated, maintained and expanded upon re-encounter with antigen. Ultimately, these studies are all aimed at a better understanding of the function of memory T cells in protection against disease.
About the Author: Maurizio Zanetti, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and member of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. He is the Director of the Immunology laboratory at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center as well as of the Graduate Course in Immunology at UCSD. Main interests include the generation and maintenance of memory T cells with protective value against disease. These responses are studied with respect to cancer and influenza virus infection. His work in humans is devoted to to the immunology of telomerase reverse transcriptase, a prototype universal cancer antigen. He served in the program Committee of the American Society of Immunology, and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Immunology and Cellular Immunology. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and American Society for Clinical Investigation. He received his MD from the University of Padova, Italy. Stephen P. Schoenberger, PhD, is a member in the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and adjunct faculty in the division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. His main research interests include CD8+ T-cell immune memory and antigen presentation cell function. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Associate Editor at the Journal of Immunology, and is a member of numerous national and international scientific organizations including the Dutch Immunology Society, The American Association of Immunologists. He received his PhD from the University of California in Los Angeles, USA.