Following the tracks of immune responses

Tissue-specific immune responses of cellular and humoral nature are hallmark features of many autoimmune disorders in humans. Tools for correctly identifying clonotypes of disease-related immune cells are therefore highly desirable. Recent developments involve a combination of laser-microdissection-assisted single-cell PCR of individual target-tissue invading T cells, and CDR3 spectratyping to identify and track autoaggressive T cells within and outside their target tissue.