Dr Basta is a professor of Immunology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. He obtained his PhD while working at the Institute of Virology and Immunoprophylaxis from the University of Bern in Switzerland in 2000. His group investigates how professional antigen presenting cells can orchestrate innate and adaptive immune responses during virus infection or tumour immunotherapy. They are interested in how cytokines can modulate immune cell functions, affect the polarization of macrophages and the priming of CD8 + T cells.