Every day, viruses and bacteria enter our bodies and are efficiently beaten down and kicked out by our immune system. Amazingly, this immune system is also able to identify bad changes happening inside our very own cells, such as the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell. But how can we use our own immune system to fight cancer? And why is it that sometimes our immune system cannot distinguish between healthy and diseased cells, so we get autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis?

T-cells, also sometimes known as the ‘elite soldiers’ of our immune system, are crucial in this secret inner war of the body. They circulate in the blood, identifying and destroying diseased cells – cells gone bad. But how do they separate diseased cells, healthy cells and cancer cells? And how do we use them in immunotherapy against cancer so we make sure they destroy only the cancer cells and not the healthy tissue around it?

But T cells are not just one cell-type, it comprises many subtypes, with varying success in fighting tumors. Sine Reker Hadrups’ lab is determined to identify the ideal type of T- cell soldiers. These are cells that efficiently and precisely destroy the tumor and that maintain healthy in a hostile tumor micro-environment.

Today it is possible to look at individual T cells and identify how they are different from other T cells, to find out why some T cells are particularly good at killing cancer cells. Sine Reker Hadrup will take you on a journey through our strange inner world of immune system, T cell soldiers and cancer cells, and tell about the prospects of therapies that use our own cells to beat our own cells when they go bad.

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