The immune system operates at a scale scientists are only just beginning to be able to see. That new view could change how diseases like cancer are tackled. Speaking at WIRED Health on April 16, Daniel Davis, an immunologist at Imperial College London, detailed how researchers are using advanced microscopes to uncover previously invisible dynamics in the human immune system, showing that there are multiple processes happening on a “nanoscale” that was previously out of reach. That new view is already reshaping how immunity is understood. “We have discovered something that’s known as the immunological synapse, which is that lots of different protein molecules are known to trigger the immune system,” Davis said. Today’s microscopes reveal worlds that “we just had no idea that existed,” he explained. “There wasn’t really a hypothesis that led us to that,” he said. “It was watching things happen under a microscope.” At this scale, even the first moments of contact between cells look different. “When an immune cell sticks to another cell, it’s got to decide if that other …