David Masopust: Tracking tapirs, T cells, and other David Masopusts

What a year for David Masopust. The 36-year-old microbiologist won the NIH Director's New Innovator Award in September, shortly after winning the American Society for Microbiology ICAAC Young Investigator Award and the Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award. Lymphocytes hadn't even crossed his mind 15 years ago. But after some soul searching and tapir tracking in Costa Rica, Masopust began to hone in on immunology, eventually joining Leo Lefrancois' laboratory at the University of Connecticut. There, he charted the migratory patterns of memory T cell populations in peripheral tissues after infection (1). He then delved deeper into the nature of immuno-logical memory in Rafi Ahmed's laboratory at Emory University in Georgia before moving to his current position as Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Memory T cell endurance can determine whether or not repeated exposure to a pathogen results in calamity. Masopust is trying to figure out what makes virus-specific CD8 + T cells tire or malfunction , and in doing so he's helped discover ways to reverse T cell exhaustion (2). Masopust's portfolio is filled with studies on memory T cell responses after vaccination and mucosal infection (3, 4). And although he's not the type to say it himself, his body of work on CD8 + T cells will undoubtedly contribute to the next wave of vaccination strategies. What are tapirs and how did you fi nd them? [Laughing] Tapirs are large mammals. Some people describe them as a cross between a pig and an elephant because they have a semi-prehensile snout that can uproot small trees. Actually, they're related to rhinos and weigh 300 pounds easy. I used to help a field biologist track tagged tapirs with radiotelemetry. Basically , I'd go out alone in the jungle in the middle of the night, triangulate two signals, interpolate those directions, and get an idea of where a collared tapir was. It involved crossing a river in a rowboat with holes in it—sharks and caimans all around. Did anything scary ever happen? Once I was charged by a tapir while I was sort of snoozing against a fallen tree. One tapir had been chasing another out of its territory. After the smaller tapir leaped into the water, the bigger one turned its eyes toward me and seemed to say, "Why don't you get out of here, too." I escaped, but it was intimidating! I really felt out of my element …