Young T cells go to school in your thymus. Star-shaped cells in its outer part give them their first big test.
Drag to turn it around. Use the buttons to zoom in and try things from the lessons.
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Your thymus is a small organ in your chest, behind your breastbone and in front of your heart. It is like a training school for T cells, a kind of germ-fighting white blood cell.
Its outer part is called the cortex. There, star-shaped cells stretch out their arms to make a net. Crowds of young T cells pack the spaces in between.
Every cell in your body wears tiny ID tags. A T cell needs to be able to read them to do its job.
Press Give the test on the 3D model to see young T cells get checked.
Your thymus is busiest when you are a kid. After you grow up, it slowly shrinks, but the T cells it trained can last for years.