By Faith Uwadiae
Edited by William Branchett
Recently we welcomed Professor Phillip Ashton-Rickardt for an insightful lecture and journal club discussion on his latest science paper, describing the identification of a novel protein important for T cell proliferation. (Read the full article here: https://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6238/995.full)
Effective CD8+ T cells responses are required for robust control of viral infections. However, during chronic infections, including clone 13 lymphocytic choriomenigitis virus (LCMV Cl13), the CD8+ T cell response becomes exhausted resulting in viral persistence. Ashton-Rickardt and colleagues used a forward genetic chemical mutagenesis approach to generate a panel of mouse lines, which they screened for enhanced CD8+ T cell responses during LCMV Cl13 infection.