immunity

Topic description and stories

A person laying in a bed under a blanket

Chronic diseases misdiagnosed as psychosomatic can lead to long term damage

03 Mar 2025

A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus...

A habitable planet for healthy humans

13 Dec 2023

Cambridge Zero symposium gathers researchers to examine the connections between planetary and public health.

Covid-19 seen under the microscope. SARS-CoV-2, 3D rendering

Omicron may be significantly better at evading vaccine-induced immunity, but less likely to cause severe disease

20 Dec 2021

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may be significantly better than previous variants at evading vaccine-induced antibodies, according to new research...

Opinion: How your body clock helps determine whether you’ll get ill or not

17 Aug 2016

Akhilesh Reddy (Department of Clinical Neurosciences) discusses how circadian rhythms can affect whether you get the flu.

Time of day influences our susceptibility to infection, study finds

15 Aug 2016

We are more susceptible to infection at certain times of the day as our body clock affects the ability of viruses to replicate and spread between...

Too exhausted to fight – and to do harm

29 Jun 2015

An ‘exhausted’ army of immune cells may not be able to fight off infection, but if its soldiers fight too hard they risk damaging the very body they...

Seasonal immunity: Activity of thousands of genes differs from winter to summer

12 May 2015

Our immune systems vary with the seasons, according to a study led by the University of Cambridge that could help explain why certain conditions such...