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HUMAN T CELL IMMUNOLOGY · NYU LANGONE

Studying human immune biology, one cell at a time.

We study how CD4 T cells and B cells work together to build durable immune memory after vaccination, infection, and transplantation.

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Understanding the recipe for a healthy immune system.

We are a T cell immunology lab studying how the human immune system responds and changes with vaccination, infection, and transplantation.

Our goal is to understand what shapes the quality and durability of immune memory in health and disease, with a focus on the intersection of CD4 T cells and B cells. We combine clinical trials with high-content single-cell methods.

UMAP of spike-specific memory CD4 T cell clusters
01 · GERMINAL CENTERS

Germinal centers and inflammatory signaling

How inflammation from infection or aging reshapes Tfh help and the memory it leaves behind.
Schematic of a pig thymokidney transplanted into a human decedent
02 · XENOTRANSPLANTATION

Tfh contributions to xenograft rejection

How human T cells respond to pig organs and help drive the antibodies that reject them.
Antibody titers over time in strong and poor responders to hepatitis B vaccination
03 · VACCINES

Cellular predictors of vaccine responses

Finding the cellular signals that separate durable vaccine responses from poor ones.
KEY FINDINGS

What we've learned

All publications →
Immunofluorescence of germinal centers in a lymph node biopsy after hepatitis B vaccination
BIORXIV · 2026 · CHEN ET AL.

Poor hepatitis B vaccine responses trace back to Tfh in the lymph node

Lymph node biopsies after HBV vaccination link weak antibody responses to Tfh dysfunction, and place a GNG4⁺ Tfh subset inside the germinal center.

Read the preprint →
Density plots of memory CD4 T cells in vaccine-primed versus infection-primed people
SCIENCE IMMUNOLOGY · 2024 · GRAY-GAILLARD ET AL.

Infection leaves a lasting mark on memory CD4 T cells

Spike-specific CD4 T cells first primed by SARS-CoV-2 infection keep an interferon and cytotoxic signature through later vaccination, so the inflammation present at priming shapes memory for the long term.

Read the paper →
Flow cytometry of ICOS+CD38+ circulating Tfh after influenza vaccination in healthy adults and patients on anti-PD-1
NATURE IMMUNOLOGY · 2022 · HERATI ET AL.

PD-1 blockade amplifies Tfh responses to flu vaccine

In some patients on anti-PD-1 therapy, influenza vaccination drove stronger circulating Tfh responses and proliferation in Tfh and B cells, showing that PD-1 restrains the human Tfh–germinal center axis.

Read the paper →
LAB LIFE

Single cells, one team

The TeamTfh lab group outside the labRamin in a “Single cells, single all the way” holiday sweaterLance the lab llama in safety gogglesLab members celebrating with cake, with a colleague joining by video

Help us figure out how human immunity works.

We're always looking for postdocs, graduate students, and technicians who want to work at the interface of clinical trials and single-cell immunology.

Email Ramin