Connor Wilhelm, Experimental Pathology PhD candidate in Alex Boyden’s lab, has received a travel grant from the National MS Society to attend this year’s Autumn Immunology Conference (AIC) in Chicago, where he will present a poster and short talk. Connor’s abstract was competitively selected for recognition by program organizers and is entitled “Autoregulatory CD8 T cells induced by Listeria-encoded neuroantigen require B cells for functional suppression of EAE”. This immune-mediated CNS demyelinating disease MS mouse model project, which is currently maturing towards manuscript submission, involves an interesting finding where B cells must be present in Listeria (myelin peptide-encoded)-infected donor mice if adoptively transferred CD8 T cells are to successfully suppress neuroinflammation and demyelination in myelin peptide-immunized recipient EAE mice. Connor is actively investigating the altered CD8 T cell compartment and the mechanisms by which B cells could be altering it. Results have implications for potentially intriguing B cell:CD8 T cell interactions in autoimmunity and neuroimmunology contexts. Connor and Alex thank Drs. Nitin Karandikar and Kathryn Eschbacher for key contributions to the project.