For this article, Eugene Russo interviewed Nina Bhardwaj, an associate professor of clinical investigation at Rockefeller University. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that this paper has been cited significantly more often than the average paper of the same type and age.

M.L. Albert, B. Sauter, N. Bhardwaj, "Dendritic cells acquire antigen from apoptotic cells and induce class I-restricted CTLs," Nature, 392:86-9, March 5, 1998. (Cited in more than 187 papers since publication)


Nina Bhardwaj
The immune system's T cells can't fight tumor cells on their own. To recognize a tumor's antigens--the proteins on tumors that stimulate an immune response--T cells must seek the aid of professional antigen presenting cells (APCs). Tumor cells are themselves poor APCs and can't directly activate naïve T cells; only a select few cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), fit the bill.

The authors of this paper sought to address...

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