T-cell activation: Variation is the spice of life.

The article reports on the research in the U.S. on how to generate the variability of T-cell responses to antigenic stimulation within a clonal population. Accordingly, the researchers combine computer modelling and single-cell analysis for this research. Through this strategy, they were able to show that variability in the basal expression of CD8 and the phosphatase SHP1 within a clonal T-cell population provides phenotypic variability in a controlled manner.