
Davis Garner
PhD Candidate in Immunology at Harvard Medical School studying transposable elements and epigenetics in immune loci and cancer.
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Jul 13, 2026
87 | On the joys of being a young scientist
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Davis GarnerGUEST
So when you enter the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, you go through the entrance, there's a coat check on your left, and on the right, there is a small, dark room with a bunch of jewelry and precious gems.

Davis GarnerGUEST
And looking through the clear glass door, there's a ruby bedazzled starfish, right? I mean, right off the bat, you're like, "Starfish, how does this have to do with immunology?" Well, if you dig into the history of immunology, one of the founding fathers of modern immunology is Elie Metchnikoff, who when he left his homeland of Ukraine and moved to Sicily, he spent a lot of time on the beach, and he was looking at all the sea creatures there.

Davis GarnerGUEST
So Elie Metchnikoff was looking at these transparent starfish larva, and he had this really bizarre idea of, "What happens if I just poke it with a thorn?" He essentially perturbed the starfish and used a carmine dye, a red dye, to see what would happen after he poked the starfish.

Davis GarnerGUEST
And he could see these mobile cells moving and collecting the dye, right? And these experiments, along with others, led to the discovery of phagocytosis, macrophages.
