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 ...
