P. L. F. Johnson

Dynamics and turnover of memory CD8 T cell responses following yellow fever vaccination

This study uses mathematical models to show that memory CD8 T cells decline following a power law, with division rates stabilizing and death rates declining slowly over decades.

Linking high GC content to the repair of double strand breaks in prokaryotic genomes

The paper links high GC content in prokaryotic genomes to the repair of double-strand breaks via the non-homologous end joining pathway, suggesting GC content may be an adaptive response to repair needs.

Ecology Shapes Microbial Immune Strategy: Temperature and Oxygen as Determinants of the Incidence of CRISPR Adaptive Immunity

The paper develops a predictive model of CRISPR incidence in bacteria and archaea using phylogenetically-corrected machine learning, revealing ecological drivers like temperature and oxygen levels.

Selective maintenance of multiple CRISPR arrays across prokaryotes

The paper investigates why prokaryotes maintain multiple CRISPR arrays, proposing a tradeoff between memory span and learning speed as a selective mechanism.