“Why do immune cells that are supposed to eliminate viruses suddenly turn against our own body?”

There are instances where killer T cells—which are meant to precisely remove virus-infected cells—malfunction like overheated engines, attacking even healthy cells and damaging tissues. A KAIST research team has now identified the key mechanism that regulates this excessive activation of killer T cells, offering new insights into controlling immune overreactions and developing therapies for immune-related diseases.

KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on November 5 that a research team led by Professors Eui-Cheol Shin and Su-Hyung Park from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Hyuk Soo Eun from Chungnam National University College of Medicine, has uncovered the molecular basis of nonspecific activation in killer T cells and proposed a new therapeutic strategy to control it.

A recent study has established clear, practical cutoff points for body fat measurements that are strongly associated with physical performance of male professional soccer players. The research, conducted on athletes from the Brazilian state championship, provides coaches and sports scientists with simple tools to monitor players and help maintain optimal fitness levels. These insightful findings were recently published by Translational Exercise Biomedicine (ISSN: 2942-6812), an official partner journal of International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS).

People diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2025 can expect to live for an extra six or seven months, compared to the average survival time for patients diagnosed in 2011, according to a major study of patient data in the US presented at the Advanced Breast Cancer Eighth International Consensus Conference. Researchers say the increase in survival time coincides with the availability of more effective treatments for advanced breast cancer, as well as wider improvements in diagnosis and quality of care.