Dr Glenn Robert Bantug is a research scientist in the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel. He completed his PhD at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA, where he studied adaptive immune responses in cytomegalovirus-infected newborn brain. Dr Bantug is currently a project manager in Prof Christoph Hess’ laboratory, where his primary research focus is on resolving how shifts in metabolic pathway usage influence human B and T cell function at distinct differentiation states. His role in the ISINC-19 research consortia is examining the relationship between severe forms of COVID-19 and metabolic alterations in immune cells that result in functional decline. Unravelling the molecular basis for these changes in cellular metabolism offers great promise for identifying new druggable targets that will augment immune function in elderly individuals and in subjects with underlying pathologies.