Finding out about helminths: Professor Nicola Harris

Professor Nicola Harris is a co-organiser of the forthcoming
(8-12 Dec 2019) conference dedicated to helminths

Adapted from Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology

“Helminths are perhaps the most successful parasites on the planet,” says Professor Nicola Harris, co-organizer of the upcoming (8-12 Dec 2019) Keystone Symposia on “Helminths: New insights from immunity to global health.”

Prof Harris says that helminths have co-evolved with humans and still today cause chronic and near-ubiquitous infections amongst populations living in endemic regions without access to adequate sanitation.

Heady days: Review charts growth of lung microbiome research

Professor Ben Marsland

by Anne Crawford

In 2010 scientists reported for the first time that microbiota – the community of microorganisms that includes bacteria – existed in the airways of humans; they were met with disbelief: the healthy lung was thought to be sterile.
 
Around the same time, Professor Ben Marsland and colleagues conducted a study demonstrating that administration of innocuous bacteria to the lungs of mice protected them against asthma. A further study together with Professor Nicola Harris showed that ‘germ-free’ mice, which are bred under sterile conditions and have no microbiota, exhibited increased susceptibility to asthma.