Flow cytometry is arguably an immunologist's favourite tool. Since the development of the first modern instruments by Len Herzenberg in the 1970s, flow cytometry has enabled researchers to characterize cell populations according to phenotype, and to enumerate and even isolate the cells responding to infection, for example. With ongoing technical advances, flow cytometry is now proving to be even more powerful. The latest multiparameter machines allow the simultaneous assessment of numerous phenotypic and functional features of single cells. In their Review on page 247, Robert Seder and colleagues highlight the importance of using multiparameter flow cytometry to better understand the functional capacity of effector and memory T-cell responses, with a view to designing vaccines to optimize both the magnitude and the quality of the T-cell response.
When considering the immune response to pathogens, one must not overlook the importance of natural killer (NK) cells in providing a first line of defence. As reviewed by Lewis Lanier on page 259, NK cells contribute to host defence against viruses by the rapid induction of direct effector functions and by shaping the nature of subsequent adaptive immune responses. However, to counter this attack, viruses have evolved numerous mechanisms of escape. NK cells are also integral to the concept of cis recognition presented by Werner Held and Roy Mariuzza on page 269. They describe how receptor–ligand interactions occurring on the same cell (cis interactions) can alter the behaviour of NK cells compared with conventional receptor–ligand interactions between different cells (trans interactions).
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