Bruce Stillman, Ph.D. is president and chief executive officer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, explains that there are two adaptive immune responses, and those immune responses adapt to changes in cells in our body whether they be by infection or other.

Cancer cells are often different in shape and size to normal cells, and they no longer respond to signals that control normal cellular functions. Our body's immune response is constantly surveilling for these emerging pre-cancers or pre-tumor cells. Successful cancers have to avoid detection long enough to grow into a tumor. Bruce Stillman, Ph.D., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: “There are two what are called adaptive immune responses. And those immune responses adapt to changes in cells in our body whether they be by infection or other changes, perhaps such as cancer. That two arms of the adaptive immune response, one arm is making antibodies produced by B cells. And these antibodies bind and direct the elimination of those cells. The other part of the immune response is the T cell immune response where T cells actually kill cells that are changed in our body. There is constant surveillance of the cells in our body so that emerging pre- cancers or pre-tumor cells would be eliminated by the immune response.” Bruce Stillman, Ph.D. is president and chief executive officer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He is interested in understanding the mechanism and control of DNA replication in higher cells. Working in baker's yeast, he has identified DNA sequences and proteins that interact to initiatiate chromosome duplication. “A very exciting area of immunology is what is called adjuvant therapy. And this is where you stimulate the body's immune system with agents that activate the immune system and make them hypersensitive to these foreign cells in our body such as cancer cells. And there are a number of clinical trials going on now where the immune system is being enhanced by these kinds of adjuvant or stimulant therapies, and there has been some success although I think there is still a lot of research in this area to do.”

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