BSI blog

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported one of its largest emergency vaccination campaigns for the yellow fever virus in Africa. In our latest blog we look at the challenges in producing and administering an effective vaccine.

Genetic link to flu transmission in chickens, markers of neutrophil activity may help sepsis diagnosis in severe burn patients and how our immune system recognises pathogens.

Cancer drugs could target autoimmune disease, calcium channel blocker may be effective therapy against fungal disease and immune system activity linked to likelihood of heart attack.

To what ends will a health worker go in order to reach children who need protection from disease? Chief Executive Jo Revill writes about her visit to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle recently for a meeting which brought together different groups to talk under the theme of ‘taking risks’.

The BSI is sponsoring Outbreak! at Cheltenham Science Festival, a street game where you play a government scientist tasked with identifying and controlling a deadly new disease. Here, Outbreak! designer Jo Pennock talks us through the rationale behind the game and why the clock is ticking to come up with an action plan before it’s too late.

Differences in individuals’ immune responses linked to flu vaccine effectiveness, the importance of resting phases in B cell development and research into whether pathogens cause type 1 diabetes.

John Tregoning discusses his learnings from a seminar about the better use of statistics in animal experiments.

This April, the British Society for Immunology supported the event ‘Gut Feeling’ at the Edinburgh International Science Festival through our Communicating Immunology grant scheme. Here, event chair Adam Hart tells us more about the session and why bacteria can be a useful science communication tool.

We’re excited to announce the launch of #BritainBreathing, our new citizen science app about seasonal allergies. We caught up with Sheena Cruickshank, BSI trustee and one of the lead scientists working on the project from The University of Manchester, to find out more…

Ever wanted to find out more about a subject before committing to five years at university? Newcastle University’s Mini Medical School is a series of lectures aimed at 15-year-olds considering a degree in medicine.

Back in 2010, David Cameron pledged to reduce net migration into the UK to below 100,000 – ‘no ifs, no buts’.
Six years (and one coalition government) later, and most recent estimates show immigration to be continuing its inexorable rise, with net migration reaching a record 336,000 in the summer of 2015.

Cancer Research UK are inviting applications from non-cancer immunologists – to encourage these scientists to explore how their area of research could advance our understanding of the role the immune system can play in fighting cancer.

2016 is an exciting year for the British Society for Immunology as it marks our 60th anniversary – time certainly flies when studying the immune system! We want to make this a year to remember for our members and the discipline.

Our President, Professor Peter Openshaw, appeared on the BBC Radio 2 Simon Mayo Drivetime programme on 4 January answering questions about how to keep your immune system healthy and how to avoid colds. Here, he discusses some of the questions asked in more detail.
Here at the BSI, we’re always looking out for additional ways to communicate the science and wonder of immunology beyond our membership to students and the public. For our latest project, we’re pleased to announce the launch a new collection of short videos that explain different aspects of the immune system.