Immunology teacher referenced Backdraft

My teacher was talking about Tregs (Regulatory T cells). He was calling them firemen, which made sure the fire (inflammatory response) did not get out of control.

When you have an infection, for example, Tregs make sure that you don't respond too strongly against the infection, since that can cause collateral damage.

But then, he was telling us about how Tregs, the firemen, can actually become arsonists, as they create conditions for a pathogen to survive - and make the fire last longer.

To help make his metaphor make sense, he says that there was a movie that was like this.

Before he even mentioned the name of the film, or the plot, I knew he was going to talk about this one.

And in a room full of science nerds, everybody thought I was a nerd.

The New World fell not to a sword but to a meme.