News

Sarah Reece wins 2011 Nexxus Young Life Scientist of the Year

Dr Sarah Reece, an expert in evolutionary theory whose work uncovers the tricks that parasites use to remain a step ahead of medical science, was named on 3 November as the 2011 Nexxus Young Life Scientist of the Year (East).

Wild Immunology Symposium report published

A meeting report on the last CIIE symposium in Wild Immunology has been published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Cattle parasite vaccine offers hope to world’s poorest farmers

A new approach to vaccinating cattle could help farmers worldwide, research suggests.

Scientists have developed a technique using a harmless parasite – which lives in cows but has no effect on their health – to carry medicines into the animals’ bloodstream.

Researchers created the vaccine by inserting key genetic material from a vaccine into the parasite’s DNA. The manipulated parasite is intended to be injected into cattle, where it would continue to thrive in their bloodstreams, releasing small amounts of vaccine slowly over time.

Multiple malaria vaccine offers protection to people most at risk

A new malaria vaccine could be the first to tackle different forms of the disease and help those most vulnerable to infection, a study suggests.

The new vaccine is designed to trigger production of a range of antibodies to fight the many different types of parasite causing the disease.

Scientists created the vaccine by combining multiple versions of a key protein found in many types of malaria parasite, which is known to trigger production of antibodies upon infection.

CIIE Symposium on Parasite evolution across scales

We are pleased to announce that the 5th CIIE Symposium, “Life in cells, hosts, and vectors: how do parasites maximise fitness across scales?”, will be held on Tuesday November 29, 2011 in Lecture Theatre 3, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh.
This will be an all-day event.

Scientists make virus discovery

Scientists have gained new knowledge into how viruses such as flu and HIV jump between species. The research, by Edinburgh and Cambridge universities, should help predict the appearance of new diseases.

The scientists wanted to understand how viruses such as bird flu infect distant species like humans.

They found they were better able to infect species closely related to their typical target species than species that were distantly related.

CIIE Fellowships

Fellowship applications for the 2012 round have now been closed.

 

 

Fellowship Opportunities

The Centre is now advertising the first tranche of Fellowships, with a closing date of 18 September 2011. 
 
The Wellcome Trust-funded Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution (CIIE) has become a major centre for interdisciplinary research into infectious disease since its inception in 2008. This thriving Centre is now looking to attract dynamic and enthusiastic researchers, eager to operate at the interface between disciplines (e.g. infection biology, immunology, evolutionary biology, ecology, epidemiology and mathematical modelling) to create new research paradigms to tackle infectious diseases. To promote this, we are offering two interdisciplinary research fellowships of two years' duration, with the intention of providing a springboard for independent fellowship applications. Example projects on offer within the Centre can be found at http://ciie.bio.ed.ac.uk/, though applicants with their own research projects within the remit of the Centre are also welcome.

£2.4M support from the Wellcome Trust for Edinburgh Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution

It has been announced that University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution has been granted a major new strategic award by one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, The Wellcome Trust.

Mass culling for foot-and-mouth 'may be unnecessary'

The mass cull of farm animals to control the spread of foot-and-mouth disease may be unnecessary if there is a new outbreak, scientists suggest.

A new analysis of disease transmission suggests that future outbreaks might be controlled by early detection and killing only affected animals.

The scientists said their findings did not suggest the mass slaughter policy during the 2001 UK outbreak was wrong.

CIIE Workshop ‘Translating Disease Ecology & Evolution Research to Policy’

We are pleased to announce this CIIE Workshop will be held on Tuesday 31st May 2011 at Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh.
This will be an afternoon event.
 

Targeting vector-transmitted parasites

Many parasites like the ones that infect humans with malaria, sleeping sickness, and leishmaniasis spend part of their life-cycles developing inside insect vectors before being transmitted to a human host. This developmental period inside the insect represents an attractive point of attack for researchers trying to prevent the spread of disease.
 
Recent research reveals the strategies that these vector-transmitted parasites use to optimize their growth and transmission to an eventual human host.

CIIE Symposium on Wild Immunology

We are pleased to announce that the postponed CIIE Symposium will be held on Thursday 30th June 2011 in Lecture Theatre 3, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh.
This will be an all-day event.
 
The aim of the symposium is to bring together researchers from diverse disciplines to address a central question in infectious disease biology and immunology:

Parasites' struggle for survival 'makes malaria deadly'

Edinburgh University scientists have claimed malaria is particularly deadly because the parasites which carry it battle other infections for survival.

They found, when malaria parasites enter the bloodstream, they alter their plan of attack if they face competition from other strains of the infection.

However, it means they have less resources left to spread the disease.

Malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, kills about one million people every year.

Scientists suggest red deer on Rum rutting earlier

Wild red deer on a Scottish island have started rutting earlier in the year because of climate change, scientists have suggested.
 
Research by the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh looked at records of deer behaviour on Rum over the last 38 years.
It suggests ruts, when males compete for a mate, and calving were now up to two weeks earlier on average.
Researchers said this could be because of warmer springs and summers.
 

Pages