Picture: Wellcome Trust UK scientists may have found a way to destroy HIV’s last refuge. A study by Oxford University has confirmed that a treatment developed by a British company can remove the virus in its chosen hiding place, in laboratory conditions, offering hope of a viable treatment. Professor Lucy Dorrell and her team at … Read more
News for Gastroenterology and Mucosal Immunity
Researchers find more uses for immune system’s ‘Swiss army knife’
Oxford University research supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre has found that a little-studied and relatively unknown part of the human immune system could be twice as important as previously thought. Mucosal Associated Invariant T-cells (MAIT cells) were first identified in 1993 but largely ignored until recently. Australian researchers recently found that they … Read more
New TB test to get sufferers on right drugs sooner
Tuberculosis sufferers will be able get drug treatment sooner thanks to a new whole genome sequencing technique to determine for the first time which drugs to give sufferers, researchers in Oxford have reported. University of Oxford researchers at the John Radcliffe Hospital have developed a genetic test – details of which are published online today … Read more
Immune system talk draws crowds
More than 100 people attended the latest BRC talk about the human immune system and how it can help and attack the body. The University of Oxford’s Professor Paul Bowness spoke on “Autoimmunity – when our immune system turns on our bodies” at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Headington, on Thursday June 11. The free event … Read more
First trial of a new hepatitis C vaccine shows promise
A new vaccine against the chronic liver disease hepatitis C has shown promising results in a first clinical trial in humans, Oxford University researchers report. The vaccine, based on a modified cold virus, generated immune responses similar to those seen in the minority of people who are naturally able to clear any infection with the … Read more