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A whole new world
are unable to fight infections that would normally be dealt with easily, and often die young. In normal circumstances, immune cells killaberrant cells – including cancer cells or virus-infected cells – by secreting toxic enzymes into them. These enzymes...
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Talking T Cells
Professor Sheena Cruickshank on how the unsung stars of the immune system protect us against variants of SARs-CoV-2 and are the target of new vaccines for COVID-19 and AIDS February 22nd 2022 Sheena Cruickshank is an immunologist and professor in...
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The Immune Mind: The New Science of Health
Monty Lyman and Predrag B. Slijepčević Transworld, £22.00 We have all experienced feeling low when we are ill and our immune system is under attack. But can the reverse also be true – that our mental wellbeing can influence our immunity to disease?...
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The mysteries of milk
to feed on after hatching from eggs. Over time, these skin glands evolved into nipples as a way to deliver the mother's immune system to newborns to protect them from infections. Food might have been a secondary benefit. This immune protection covers...
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“It's a bit of a dream, but it would be transformative for the way people see vaccines”
cavity and genital tract in humans. Bombarded with microbes from the environment every day, these surfaces have a unique immune defence system capable of stopping pathogens reaching cells and preventing infections becoming established. There is even...
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War of the Worms
is vaccination. By exposing an individual to a harmless version of a pathogen, vaccines mimic infection and prime the immune system to defend the body without regular drug treatment. Vaccines provide long-term protection from infection and are less...
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Primer to the Immune Response
Tak W Mak, Mary E Saunders and Bradley D Jett Elsevier Tak W Mak, Mary E Saunders and Bradley D Jett Elsevier This immensely useful book will be of great value to students studying immunology modules within a wide range of undergraduate programmes, as...
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“Our entire way of working has changed”
Immunologists Dr Elizabeth Mann (left) and Dr Madhvi Menon (right) are on the frontline of COVID-19 research, following the immune responses of patients arriving at hospitals across Manchester. Can you describe what your role involved before the...
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Biology Week 2021 Calendar
Fold an origami antibody & virus | All day, worldwide Join the British Society for Immunology to explore how your immune system works to fight off germs while folding origami! The activity is free to attend and open to all ages including families and...
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“If this doesn’t work, I’m not sure anything will”
interest from around the world. Initial results indicated no early safety concerns and found the vaccine induced a strong immune response, in both T-cells and antibodies, in participants. The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is based on the...
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Viruses That Kill Cancer
cell’s contents – including viral particles and tumour antigens – into the surrounding tissue then triggers waves of local immune system activity. Not only are the cancer cells being infected and killed, but the resulting stimulation of the immune...
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“If this doesn’t work, I’m not sure anything will”
interest from around the world. Initial results indicated no early safety concerns and found the vaccine induced a strong immune response, in both T-cells and antibodies, in participants. The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is based on the...
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Leukemia Lifeblood
Transfusions of umbilical cord blood can provide a life-saving boost to leukaemia patients’ immune systems. So why is banking cord blood the exception rather than the norm, asks Bryn Nelson The Biologist 64(3) p14-17 In 1988, French doctor Eliane...
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Spotlight on: Immunology
The Biologist Vol 62(4) p32-33 Immunology is the study of the immune system in both healthy and diseased states. It includes the study of how the body fights infections from bacteria and viruses, and the development of medical interventions to treat...
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Parasite puppetmasters
known as tachyzoitesreplicate and spread rapidly throughout the body. The tachyzoites respond to the assault from the immune response by forming a tissue cyst filled with bradyzoites (although the situation in immunocompromised or pregnant women can be...
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"We we are calling for donors that never tested positive for SARS-CoV-2"
Immunoengineer Kaitlyn Sadtler is studying the immune response of those with little or no COVID-19 symptoms in the hope of understanding their role in the spread of the disease. Photo courtesy of NIH/NIBIB How has your role changed since the COVID-19...
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Lessons from animal coronaviruses
generally necessary to conduct a virulent challenge of immunity to establish both the onset and duration of the protective immune response. We know that the inactivated virus vaccines designed to combat canine coronavirus will generally elicit...
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"I've jostled the system"
64(6) p18-21 Dame Bridget Ogilvie's parasitology research explored how parasitic worms evade and modulate the body's immune response. Further, in her long career, she took on various roles in public engagement and science funding, most notably as...
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Dame Bridget Ogilvie
64(6) p18-21 Dame Bridget Ogilvie's parasitology research explored how parasitic worms evade and modulate the body's immune response. Further, in her long career, she took on various roles in public engagement and science funding, most notably as...
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Beating animal coronaviruses
generally necessary to conduct a virulent challenge of immunity to establish both the onset and duration of the protective immune response. We know that the inactivated virus vaccines designed to combat canine coronavirus will generally elicit...
