I'm Steve Strogatz, and this is The Joy of Why, a podcast from Quantum Magazine that takes you into some of the biggest unanswered questions in math and science today.

In the last couple of years, we've been hearing a lot about the immune system, as scientists and doctors learn how to cope with COVID-19.

Of course, our immune system does more than just fight COVID.

It helps us battle countless other pathogens.

And it also repairs our skin and other tissues when they get damaged.

Unfortunately, sometimes the immune system goes haywire,

like when it starts attacking our own bodies,

or when it causes chronic inflammation.

So our health constantly depends on maintaining just the right balance of immune activity.

How exactly, though, does the immune system work?

Joining me today to discuss all this is Shrut D'Nayek.

She's an assistant professor of biological sciences at NYU's

Langone Medical Center. Her lab studies stem cells, microbes, and immunity, which includes

looking at inflammation throughout the body, but with a special focus on the skin, and especially

how skin cells remember injuries and exposure to irritants. She's particularly

interested in how immune cells interact with microbes and with each other and with other

and with other kinds of cells in the body like stem cells. The discoveries she's making could

have implications for a variety of health problems, including skin conditions

like psoriasis, autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis, and even cancer.

Shrutiniak, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, thank you for having me and for this

focus on inflammation, which, as you mentioned, is a really important part of our health and a really

critical driver of disease.

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