IMMUNOLOGY2026™ Conference Recordings For Attendees-Leveraging immgenT to understand impacts of diverse microbial exposure on circulating CD8+ T cells

Leveraging immgenT to understand impacts of diverse microbial exposure on circulating CD8+ T cells

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Erin Lucas described how increasing microbial exposure in laboratory mice changes circulating CD8 T cells. Traditional SPF mice have mostly naïve and central memory T cells, unlike adult humans, who have more effector memory cells. To model a more “human-like” immune system, SPF mice were co-housed with pet store mice, exposing them to diverse pathogens and parasites. This “dirty mouse” or NME model caused broad immune activation and shifted the T-cell compartment toward more effector-memory-like and KLRG1-positive CD8 populations.<br /><br />Using MGenT single-cell RNA-seq and TRBI mapping, the team found that NME mice had a strong expansion of KLRG1-positive memory CD8 T cells, including a distinction between short-lived effector cells and long-lived memory cells. These changes were consistent across cohorts and persisted after infection with LCMV Armstrong, where NME mice showed an even stronger KLRG1-memory bias than SPF mice. Overall, MGenT helped refine T-cell annotations and revealed durable immune remodeling by diverse microbial exposure.

Meta Tag

Date April 16, 2026 4:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Room 151

Session Resource Highlight: immgenT: A Community Reference Atlas for Mouse T Cells

Speaker Erin Lucas

Track Computational and Systems Immunology (COMP)

Year 2026

Keywords

microbial exposure

CD8 T cells

dirty mouse model

KLRG1-positive memory cells

single-cell RNA-seq

April 16, 2026 4:45 PM - 5:00 PM

151

Resource Highlight: immgenT: A Community Reference Atlas for Mouse T Cells

Erin Lucas

Computational and Systems Immunology (COMP)

2026