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2023 national statistics on the use of animal in science released
purposes: around 770,000 procedures (52%) were for basic research, most commonly focusing on the nervous system, the immune system, and cancer. 21% of experimental procedures were for regulatory purposes, a similar figure to 2022. These procedures...
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Learning to love Lucilia
reasons, even though researchers believe it probably robs the larvae of the commensal microorganisms that help prime their immune system. “It’s tricky for them to go into battle without all the weapons that they would have normally,” says Flores. “You...
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My Lab Unlocked: Dr Antonia Sagona MRSB
a really interesting field that more and more labs in the world are interested in. We would like to investigate further the immune response that the body presents when phage therapy is administered, and the resistance to phages that results from phage...
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Nichola Raihani FRSB: The Social Instinct
of cancer are actually formed from really quite diverse communities of cells that cooperate. They help each other evade the immune response, or increase resource delivery to the tumour, or disperse to set up new tumour sites. So, in a way, a tumour is a...
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Sensing success at iGEM
ingest tiny amounts of botulinum spores, which would be harmless to older children and adults with a more developed immune system and gut microbiota. Natural foods such as honey can be a reservoir for botulinum spores, hence the recommendations to avoid...
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Focus On: SARS-CoV-2
(‘CO’ for corona, ‘VI’ for virus, ‘D’ for disease, 2019). People over 60, or those with pre-existing heart, lung or immune system conditions are particularly at risk of more severe infections leading to complications such as pneumonia and septic shock....
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“It’s about being ‘about right’ now, rather than perfectly right too late”
to understand how, over the course of a life when you get infected with multiple different viruses, what that does to your immune dynamics. Alongside this we were also doing quite a work on understanding social behaviour. If you imagine a flu epidemic,...
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"I don't think the department has ever locked its doors to academics before in 200 years"
needs to do: researching the vaccine, research a diagnostic test and research another test so people know if they are immune to it. So, it's not vastly complicated if you focus on the virus itself. But then also, it's had this once-in-a-century effect...
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New Q&A series on bioscience’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic
into the outbreak and the virus itself, and immunologists Dr Elizabeth Mann and Dr Madhvi Menon, who are following the immune responses of patients arriving at hospitals across Manchester. Professor Paul Freemont FRSB said the response of the UK’s...
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"Everyone is running themselves ragged”
area of research towards metals and virology, metals and antivirals? Or are you looking at COVID more generally, from an immune system perspective? Well, although I do have a background in immunology, right now I'm trying to use some of the compounds...
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2019 UK animal research statistics released
procedures carried out in 2019 were to answer basic research questions – focusing particularly on the nervous system, the immune system and cancer biology, whilst 25% were for regulatory purposes - to test the safety and efficacy of products and devices...
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Trouble in paradise
loss on a tropical archipelago. J. Zool.296(3), 167–176 (2015). 4) Linzey, D. W. et al. Role of environmental pollutants on immune functions, parasitic infections and limb malformations in marine toads and whistling frogs from Bermuda. Int. J. Environ....
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University of Glasgow and Lancaster University
on their leaf surface which allow exchange of gases and water with the environment. Like humans, plants have a complex immune system for defence against microbial pathogen or ‘germs’ invisible to our eye. If we put hands covered in germs into our mouth,...
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Pinch point
crayfish is their ability to carry diseases, particularly the crayfish plague, to which many introduced species are immune, but the white-clawed crayfish is not. The crayfish plague is caused by an oomycete (fungi-like organism) called Aphanomyces...
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“We mustn’t spend a long time with a lot of virus circulating among a partially vaccinated population”
how it can impact how the virus works; it can impact binding to the human ACE2 receptor, it can impact how well the body’s immune system recognises the virus. For the other genes we very often just don't have a good idea of exactly what they do. So for...
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Member profiles: Science diplomacy, immunology and plant health
it was during my time studying for my MSc in medical immunology after my PhD that I really fell in love with all that the immune system was/is or could be. A pivotal point in my career was when I completed my BSc in 2005 and I was offered a summer...
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Member profiles: Anthrax, pregnancy and professional development
Health Research at the University of the West of Scotland. My research is in reproductive immunology, focusing on immune mechanisms within the placenta. It is an exciting time for me personally, as my first PhD student has just graduated and we are...
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RSB Fellows acknowledged in New Year Honours list 2025
in this, and I thank you all, deeply. Everyone who has been in my research team, guiding my thinking over many years. The immune system is a frontier of science whose time has come. By writing and talking about its wonders and its importance, I hope...
