Immunology News - June 2024

In this summer edition of Immunology News, we’re celebrating public engagement in all its various forms with plenty of interesting articles!

Read about a team in Cambridge who got creative to bring immunology to life for people who are blind or have low vision, or hear from Professor Sheena Cruickshank as she reflects on how attitudes towards engagement in science have changed over the years, and what it meant to win the inaugural BSI Public Engagement Award.

We also hear from our Regional & Affinity Groups, including the BSI Oxford Immunology Group about the possible future impact of AI in immunology, and how it might help us to develop a deeper understanding of biological systems.

Read on to find out more!

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Articles

Jun

Immune-altering pathogens: understanding autoreactive B cells in infectious heart disease

In this article, BSI member Dr Damián Pérez-Mazliah explains how a BSI Career Enhancing Grant helped him to unearth the extraordinary mechanisms by which pathogens alter our immune system to cause autoimmunity.

Jun

BSI Public Engagement Award: interview with Professor Sheena Cruickshank

An interview with Professor Sheena Cruickshank

Jun

BSI Comparative and Veterinary Immunology Group: Bringing together human and animal health

The BSI Comparative and Veterinary Immunology Group (CVIG) brings together veterinary, human and mouse immunologists and provides a forum for discussion, collaboration and exchange of ideas. Here, the team sets out the group’s recent activities and some of the fascinating questions that have arisen from these.

The intracellular cell group with their Sensory Science exhibit in Cambridge

Jun

Breaking down barriers with ‘Sensory Science’

Through our BSI Communication and Engagement Grant scheme, we recently supported a collaborative art project to make science more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. Here, Stavroula Piliou, a PhD student involved in the project, explains how the resulting exhibit brought the complexities of the immune system to life in a range of tactile art pieces.

Jun

Increasing impact through engagement & involvement

Engagement and involvement are vital parts of research, and are increasingly encouraged by research organisations, funders and other stakeholders. However, there can be confusion around what engagement and involvement mean and where they overlap. Here we take a closer look at both.

Jun

Getting to grips with omics: how I came to love coding

Our bioinformatics training programme has proved hugely popular since being launched in 2022. Delivered in collaboration with the Glasgow Bioinformatic Core, these courses equip wet-lab immunologists, biologists and other life scientists with the skills and confidence to perform their own bioinformatic data analysis. Here, course participant, Dr Olivia Bracken, shares her experience of taking the first two courses in the programme.

Jun

Exploring the impact of AI in immunotherapy discovery

In March, the BSI Oxford Immunology Group (BSI OIG), in collaboration with the University of Oxford Immunology Network, presented its annual one-day symposium to showcase the fantastic immunology research happening across Oxford. The final session of this year’s symposium tackled the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in immunotherapy discovery.