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Inclusive research: making science represent all individuals

For science to be truly inclusive, diversity should be considered from all angles. Funded by a British Society for Immunology Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) activity grant, Dr Harriet Groom organised a workshop to highlight the importance of research cohorts being representative of all individuals. Here, she reports on the discussions at the event on Monday 9 May during Black Inclusion Week, emphasising the need to embrace and investigate our differences.


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Based within the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID) at the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge, I am one of a team of EDI champions within the Department of Medicine – we number over one hundred across the school. Our inclusive research showcase afternoon was a great success and enjoyed, appropriately, by a diverse range of participants. We had registrations from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge BioResource, NIHR, other UK HE institutions, and even abroad. We had three speakers from across a range of disciplines with opportunities for participants and speakers to interact during the breaks and after the event.

Although great work has been done encouraging minority groups into STEM fields, I wanted this event to bring an increased focus on making the science we do representative of all individuals. In this spirit, our first speaker was Dr Viki Male, Lecturer in Reproductive Immunology at Imperial College London and proponent of great science and communication thereof.

Sex and immunology

Dr Male did her PhD on NK cells in human pregnancy at the University of Cambridge followed by a postdoc on NK cell development at Imperial College London. In 2015, she was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, which she used to start her own laboratory at the Royal Free Hospital campus of UCL. Her work focused on the role of NK cells in the liver. In 2021, she took up her Lectureship in Reproductive Immunology. Using clinical samples and a novel mouse model, her research group is investigating the role of the uterine immune cells in disorders of pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia and pre-term birth. During the pandemic, she has also been involved in collating and communicating information on the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID vaccination on fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Her talk, entitled ‘Sex and Immunology: what are we missing?’, was a tour de force in the role of sex in immunology and in the appropriate design and interpretation of scientific studies using human subjects. Dr Male began by emphasising the range of different parameters governing biological sex and how it was important for researchers to include and consider different cohorts in research design, such as menopausal and post-hysterectomy women, as well as transgender people. She then gave an engaging overview of her work on menstruation changes post-vaccination making the point that female reproductive physiology and health is an underfunded, under-researched field. Further information on her work on reproductive immunology can be read in several highly recommended review articles.1–3

African genomics of HIV

I then spoke about work we have been doing as part of the International Collaboration for the Genomics of HIV. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) are a powerful way to understand the genetic components of viral control. However, despite 70% of people living with HIV being in Africa, when we initiated our study only 3% GWAS studies had been carried out on African genomes. GWAS have previously been used to identify two controllers of HIV load in European individuals – the Human Leukocyte Antigen, which is involved in presentation of antigen to T cells, and CCR5, a key coreceptor for HIV entry. However, applying these techniques to African sequences identified a new locus associated with set point viral load in African sequences specifically.

Funded by the MRC, we have been working with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre, King’s College London, L'Institut de microbiologie de l'Université de Lausanne and our genomics collaborators Paul McLaren and Jacques Fellay, to characterise this new genetic component. It is our hope that this new knowledge could form the basis for new treatments for HIV which could target those carrying particular African-specific sequences.4

It is our hope that this new knowledge could form the basis for new treatments for HIV which could target those carrying particular African-specific sequences.

A different view

Our final speaker was Laura Messer, PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia and Executive Assistant to our Head of Department Professor Ken Smith. Having worked supporting academics for more than 15 years, Laura is in a unique position to analyse her research area job-craft in academia. In a side-step from the previous sessions, we heard how academics have not typically been included in analysis of job-crafting (enhancing work experience and efficacy through redesign of work practices). Laura’s inclusive approach considered academics at different career stages and from three different viewpoints: task, relational and cognitive crafting. Many of the techniques she highlighted will be familiar to those in academic roles and could provide a useful framework for the application of successful techniques in the future.

Many of the techniques she highlighted will be familiar to those in academic roles and could provide a useful framework for the application of successful techniques in the future.

Embracing inclusivity

In addition to the specific work showcased by the speakers, I also highlighted several great projects ongoing within the university of an inclusive nature. Although not directly related to immunology in most cases, they impact the scientific community as a whole.

  • Hidden epidemics and epidemiological obfuscation5
  • University of Cambridge Black Advisory hub decolonisation projects6
  • Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning’s inclusive teaching learning and assessment7

We are very grateful for the support of the BSI in making this day possible and for the support of the Clinical School (particularly Jane Goodall) and networks within Cambridge for making this day a success.

Dr Harriet Groom

Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge


References

  1. Male 2022 Nature Reviews Immunology 22 277–282 
  2. Monin et al. 2020 Immunology 160 106–115
  3. Male 2022 BMJ 376 o142
  4. McLaren & Fellay 2021 Nature Reviews Genetics 22 645–657
  5. Hidden Epidemics and Epidemiological Obfuscation
  6. Black Advisory hub
  7. Inclusive teaching learning and assessment