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Our body is a complex network of cells, tissues and organs that all work together to make sure we are healthy. Sometimes, these networks can become disconnected and lead to a whole range of diseases and maladies. In this event, we explore a wide range of how these can occur. The talks range from how the immune system can go wrong and cause cancer, how sex differences can effect how likely we are to be injured and how we can develop new remedies by taking advantage of our body's immune system with new vaccines.
Body composition and immune system in the battle against breast cancer
Dr Constantinos Savva
(Clinical Lecturer in Medical Oncology)
There has been a revolution in treatments that harness the immune system to kill cancer cells, known as immunotherapies. Despite encouraging results, breast cancer is less sensitive to immunotherapy than other types of cancer. Obesity and inflammation have been shown to affect anti-cancer immunity. Currently, we don't know why obesity changes anticancer immune responses in breast cancer patients. This talk will discuss how we aim to understand the interaction between tumour and immune cells to enhance immune responses against breast cancer in patients with obesity.
The progress towards an HIV-1 vaccine
Dr Joel Allen
(Senior Research Fellow in Glycobiology)
Whilst many diseases caused by viruses have effective vaccines, a protective vaccine against HIV-1 still eludes researchers worldwide. The development of such a vaccine is hindered by how the virus infects cells, however teams of researchers around the world are making significant progress. During this talk I will discuss the progress towards an HIV-1 vaccine, why such a vaccine has proven difficult to develop and where our work in Southampton fits into the larger picture relating to HIV-1 vaccine development.
Worked to the bone: do sex differences hidden inside of bones underpin military injuries?
Lysanne Michels
(PhD Student)
Theo Hornsey
(PhD Student)
Our research seeks to understand why women in the military experience more overuse injuries than men. We use high resolution CT scans of bone and apply machine learning to investigate which factors are involved in the development of such injuries, particularly focussing on the impact of sex and contraception on blood vessel canals that could result in skeletal weakening. The idea is that if we find out what influences risk of injury, we can identify the people at high risk and create targeted approaches to prevent the debilitating injuries from happening!
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