We are excited to have a new postdoctoral fellow join the lab this week. Moritz Gaidt completed his PhD training in Germany in the lab of Veit Hornung, where he did some very beautiful work on inflammasomes and the STING pathway in human cells. One of his papers from his graduate work showed that human monocytes activate an ‘alternative’ NLRP3 inflammasome pathway that depends on TLR4-TRIF-RIPK1 (instead of the canonical pathway that depends on K+ efflux). More recently, Moritz reported that in human myeloid cells, cytosolic DNA activates an inflammasome response that depends on the cGAS–STING signaling pathway instead of the AIM2 pathway. We are excited to have Moritz in the lab to get us thinking more about human inflammasome pathways — and hopefully Moritz will be able to learn a few things about mouse genetics and in vivo analyses from us as well. With Moritz from Germany, and the recent arrival of a Brazilian, the Vance Lab is becoming ever more international. There will undoubtedly be lots of opportunities for trash talking in the upcoming World Cup.