Disease-fighting organ fails with age, UGA researcher is changing that

The most important organ for your body’s immune system isn’t working well anymore.

And, so far, modern medicine hasn’t figured out a way to fix it.

But if the University of Georgia’s Nancy Manley has her way, it won’t stay that way for long.

The thymus is an organ most people have never heard of, but it serves a vital purpose. The thymus produces the body’s T cells, which serve as the immune system’s front line against disease.

The thymus is most functional when you’re born. By the time you’re a teenager, it starts to go downhill.

“When I talk to audiences, I ask people, ‘How many people in the room are over 30?’ And it’s usually most of the people in the room,” says Manley, Distinguished Research Professor of Genetics. “I’m like, ‘Okay, your thymuses are all gone. You’re already too late.’”

Luckily, the T cells your body produced during childhood are good for decades, but all bets are off after that. And if the thymus is no longer producing new T cells, that means your body is more susceptible to disease. That decline in immune function is why people over 65 are more likely to become severely ill or even die when they catch the flu. And it’s been linked to the development of autoimmune diseases, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

But nobody’s quite sure why or how the thymus starts deteriorating in the first place.