The Wnt pathway has a central role in stem cell regulation. Gattinoni et al. now show that activation of the Wnt signaling cascade in naive CD8+ T cells blocks their differentiation into effector T cells and triggers instead a memory stem cell–like phenotype. These T memory stem cells show enhanced antitumor efficacy in mice compared with other T cell subsets, arguing for their further evaluation in adoptive immunotherapies (pages 731–732).
- Luca Gattinoni
- Xiao-Song Zhong
- Nicholas P Restifo
