The immune system’s T cells, while coordinating responses to
diseases and vaccines, act like honey bees sharing information
about the best honey sources, according to a new study by
scientists at UC San Francisco. “In the morning, each bee goes
looking individually for a sugar source, then comes back to the
hive and does a dance in front of the other bees describing the
location of what it’s found, which helps the hive decide
collectively where the best source is,” said senior scientist
Matthew Krummel, PhD, a UCSF professor of pathology. They don’t
bust the same moves as bees, but T cells gather together and
communicate essential information to each other in a similar
way, Krummel said, thereby helping to coordinate immune
responses directed against invading pathogens. This discovery
might lead to useful therapeutic interventions to fight disease,
according to Krummel. Krummel’s lab team found that after
individual T cells survey lymph nodes and sample foreign matter,
such as vaccines, bacteria or viruses, t