The Science News that Shaped 2019

A T cell discovery, “hachimoji” DNA, a new species of human, and mounting fears of espionage rounded off the list this year.

kerry grens
| 6 min read
dual expresser t cell

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ABOVE: Colorized scanning electron micrographs of B and T lymphocytes (left, right) shown with a fluorescent microscopy image of the newly discovered DE cell (center).
B AND T CELL IMAGES FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES; X CELL IMAGE FROM JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

With all the extensive investigations scientists have conducted of the human immune system over the past century, it is astonishing that there are still new cell types to be found. Yet in May, researchers described a hybrid of B and T cells, which they named dual expresser (DE) cells, in people with type 1 diabetes. “We think [the DE cell peptide may play] a very major role during the initial phase of the disease,” Abdel Hamad, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study, told The Scientist at the time.

That same month, scientists ...

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Meet the Author

  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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