Mapping thymus gland tissue through the life span

It wasn’t long ago that the two-lobed thymus gland, located in the chest behind the sternum, was the dark, unexplored “continent” of human physiology.  It was known that this is where T cells mature into antibody-expressing defenders of immunity.  Now, researchers in England and Belgium have identified the 50 cell types of that make up the gland and what makes them diverse in function.  MORE

Image Credit: Kenny Roberts, Bayraktar lab: Wellcome Sanger Institute