In a new paper in the journal Nature, Alex Shalek and Jellert Gaublomme in Hongkun Park’s research group, in collaboration with Aviv Regev (Broad) and Vijay Kuchroo (Brigham and Womens Hospital), have utilized nanowire-based delivery to decipher the regulatory circuits that guide the differentiation of IL-17 producing T helpers cells known as Th17 cells. These cells play a key role in the defense against foreign pathogens, but they are also potent inducers of a variety of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The nanowire-enabled functional screening has revealed a yin-yang architecture comprised of two antagonistically coupled gene regulatory modules that control Th17 differentiation, suggesting several novel therapeutic routes for combating the T-cell subtype imbalances that underlie many diseases. Additional information on the breakthrough can be found in Science, Nature News, Scientific American, The Boston Globe, and CBS News.