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Sheena Cruickshank

Professor in Biomedical Sciences, University of Manchester

Immunology is the science of the immune system, the body’s defence against infection. From birth to death, we are bombarded with potential infectious threats that are immune system must recognise and respond to by killing or containing the threat. Yet, the immune system can be harmful too to us too when it isn’t properly controlled as is seen in allergies or autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Our research focuses on how our immune responses get started. Events that happen early in an immune response determine whether someone will be able to get rid of an infection or not or whether they get a chronic long-lasting infection or even an autoimmune disease like Inflammatory Bowel Disease. We look at how immune cells and bugs talk to each other and how this communication shapes the immune response in infection, inflammation (e.g. inflammatory bowel disease) and delayed wound-healing.

Experience

  • –present
    Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester