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SUMMARY:Wild Immunology - Dr Simon Babayan\, Animal Health and Comparative
  Medicine\, University of Glasgow
DTSTART:20170503T150000Z
DTEND:20170503T160000Z
UID:TALK66829@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mark Carrington
DESCRIPTION:Simon Babayan researches mechanisms that underlie protective i
 mmunity and disease\; the phenotypes immune cells adopt to mitigate diseas
 e\; and how to detect and quantify protective immune profiles in laborator
 y models\, domesticated animals\, and in natural populations.  Major quest
 ions:\n\n1.  How do immune-mediated host-parasite interactions affect para
 site fitness? (protective immunity vs. parasite immune evasion)\n\n2.  How
  does the immune system integrate the myriad sources of natural variation 
 to maintain health? (wild immunology)\n\n3.  How to design safe and more e
 ffective vaccines? (nature-proof vaccines)\n\nSpecifically\, studying how 
 parasitic helminths are affected by host immune responses as a function of
  parasite immune evasion and immune protective efficacy\; how protective i
 mmunity is affected by variation in host sex\, nutrition\, age\, and confe
 ction\; developing anti-filarial vaccines that target parasite immune modu
 lators and thus limit the ability of these worms to evade host immune resp
 onses.  Methods combine lab-based to analysis of molecular and cellular re
 sponses to tightly controlled infections\, diets and age structures\, with
  field studies to provide insights into how such responses affect populati
 on-level dynamics such as morbidity/mortality rates and disease transmissi
 on.  This work parasitology\, immunology\, ecology\, and computational bio
 logy - and requires (attempting at least some) integration of immunity at 
 the molecular\, cellular\, organismal\, and population levels. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Department of Pathology
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