IMMUNOLOGY2026™ Conference Recordings For Attendees-Tissue-directed maintenance of human B-cell memory after vaccination and infection

Tissue-directed maintenance of human B-cell memory after vaccination and infection

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Eric, a Columbia graduate student, described research on how human vaccine-specific memory B cells are maintained across tissues after vaccination or infection. Using fluorescent vaccine multimers and organ-donor tissues, his team profiled memory B cells in blood, bone marrow, spleen, and lymph nodes. They found that memory cells are widely distributed, but different vaccine responses preferentially localize to different sites: childhood vaccine responses were rarer and enriched in spleen and lung-associated lymph nodes, while flu and SARS-CoV-2 responses were more common in blood and bone marrow. Tissue-specific memory B-cell frequencies predicted circulating antibody levels. The study also identified distinct memory programs—classical, atypical, and marginal zone-like—and showed that these programs are compartmentalized by tissue. Single-cell and BCR sequencing revealed that expanded clones can spread across multiple tissues while differentiating into different states. Overall, the work shows that long-lived vaccine memory is tissue-directed and functionally diverse.

Meta Tag

Date April 18, 2026 1:45 PM - 2:00 PM

Room 104AB

Session Regulating Adaptive Responses

Speaker Eric Zhang

Track Lymphocyte Differentiation and Peripheral Maintenance (LYM)

Year 2026

Keywords

memory B cells

vaccine immunity

tissue distribution

single-cell sequencing

antibody response

April 18, 2026 1:45 PM - 2:00 PM

104AB

Regulating Adaptive Responses

Eric Zhang

Lymphocyte Differentiation and Peripheral Maintenance (LYM)

2026