Introduction

The increasing globalisation of infectious disease is a major challenge to human health. The MRC Human Immunology Unit is a key player in international efforts to combat this threat, and in research into other diseases involving the immune system.

The immune system is crucial to human health. Our ability to identify and destroy invading pathogens involves complex networks of interacting cells and molecules. Understanding precisely how the system works at the cellular, genetic and molecular levels will help in the development of new therapies for diseases such as AIDS, avian flu, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and eczema.

It is no coincidence that the unit sits only a few yards from the bustling entrance of one of the world’s most famous teaching hospitals: the work of the unit lies squarely at the intersection of fundamental molecular science and clinical research.

On 20 July 2010 the Medical Research Council announced that Prof Vincenzo Cerundolo has been appointed as the new director of the MRC Human Immunology Unit. The MRC press release can be found here.

Our groups

• Vincenzo Cerundolo
  Tumour immunology programme
• John Bell
  Applying genomes to the problem of immune recognition during erythropoiesis
• Paul Bowness
  What is the role of HLA-B27 in the pathogenesis of spondyloarthritis?
• Simon Davis
  T-cell Biology Group
• Lucy Dorrell
  Therapeutic immunomodulation in HIV-1 infection
• Lars Fugger
  Multiple sclerosis
• Ling-Pei Ho
  Immuneregulation in the lungs
• Astrid Iversen
  HIV evolution and host immune responses
• David Jackson
  Molecular cell biology of the lymphatic system in health, inflammation and cancer
• Andrew McMichael
  T cell Immune responses to HIV and Influenza
• Graham Ogg
  Cutaneous immunology
• Jan Rehwinkel
  Nucleic Acid Sensing by Innate Immune Receptors
• Sarah Rowland-Jones & Tao Dong
  Immunity to HIV infection
• Alison Simmons
  Innate immunity in infectious and inflammatory disease
  
• Katja Simon
  Cell death and autophagy in the immune system
  

You can contact the MRC Human Immunology unit via Moira Johnson.