Immunology has spent decades describing the immune system as a chemical conversation. Cells release signals, other cells read them, and the reading determines what happens next.
A McGill University study has added a channel nobody was listening to. T cells register the physical stiffness of the tissue they move through, and this mechanical input helps determine whether they settle down as long-lived memory cells. The work was published in Nature Immunology, and McGill announced the findings this week.
