The Immune System : a matter of life and death
Immunology is the science of the immune system, the body’s defence against infection. From birth to death, we are bombarded with potential infectious threats that require a complex network of monitoring and defence. However, the immune system can both damage and protect. The incidence of autoimmune disease, allergy and cancer is rising year on year. It is increasingly important that we understand how the balance between health and disease is maintained given the rise in both inflammatory diseases (such as diabetes and Crohn’s) and global infections such as Swine Flu and malaria.
Research at The University of Manchester encompasses both basic and clinical study and addresses key questions in the Immunology field. For example, how does our immune system regulate inflammation whilst still fighting infection? How do cytokines work? What kick starts an immune response and how does that lead to such diverse outcomes (anti-tumour immunity, autoimmunity, inflammation)?
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About us
Our public engagement event, Wriggling Rangoli was a great success. We were invited to present at The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement Annual Conference in London as part of the plenary session.
We were lucky enough to get a Beacon award for our Wriggling Rangoli project. See the learning journeys of us and others involved with The Beacon project and the community projects.
Browse our Research pages to see how we are looking at key questions in Immunology.
Want to study Immunology? We have Immunology modules available for most of our undergraduate courses in FLS, as well as relevant Postgraduate MSc and Distance Learning opportunities. See links in our Study page.
School children love worms!! Feedback from our recent 'WORM WAGON' included 'horrible but they look awesome!' and 'ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT'. I think we have them hooked...
Did you know there have been 23 Nobel Prizes awarded to University of Manchester staff and students past and present? This year The Nobel Prize for Physics went to two current University staff:
Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
Our research is outstanding! In the Research Assessment Exercise of 2008, Biological Sciences came 3rd out of 52 in the UK.
Mark Travis's group have just shown that Transforming Growth Factor β and the integrin αvβ8 play a critical role in the generation of FoxP3 regulatory T cells by dendritic cells. Worthington JJ, et al. Gastroenterology.