We owe a lot to tissue resident memory T cells (TRM). These specialized immune cells are among the body’s first responders to disease.
Rather than coursing through the bloodstream—as many T cells do—our TRM cells specialize in defending specific organs. They battle viruses, breast cancer, liver cancer, melanomas, and many other health threats.
Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D., William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), has even shown that a greater density of TRM cells is linked to better survival outcomes in lung cancer patients.