Melbourne, Feb. 2 -- The researchers have identified a rare type of immune cell, called stem-like T cells, that holds the key to maintaining powerful, long-term immune responses against cancer and other chronic infections.

Prolonged illnesses like cancer and chronic infections often leave the immune system in a state of exhaustion, where its frontline defenders - T cells - lose their ability to function effectively.

The research, led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac), revealed that the endurance of stem-like T cells is fuelled by a protein called ID3 and is expressed by a gene of the same name.

As per the Study, these ID3+ T cells have a uniqu...