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Metabolism describes the chemical processes that maintain homeostasis in the cells of living organisms. Commonly it is thought of as “the breakdown” of nutrients to provide “energy”, but this underestimates the inherent complexity between different cell populations and the demands placed on them (Yang et al., 2015). T-cells and Adaptive Immunity T-cells are the primary orchestrators of adaptive immunity. Briefly, when dendritic cells encounter …

Ralitsa R. Madsen – University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories Each one of us is the result of an extraordinary developmental process during which a single fertilised egg turns into more than a trillion cells. This is critically dependent on exquisite coordination of fundamental cell behaviours including growth, migration and “decisions” to differentiate into cell types with specialised functions. When co-ordination is lost, either …

By Sophie Arthur How many diseases and conditions do you think exist in this world? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Maybe even millions? Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. But what I do know is there could be one solution to all of them! Yes, one perfect medicine of the future! The answer? Stem cells! Stem cells, promises & superheroes Our bodies are made up of an extraordinary amount of cells – all with their own unique shape, function and gene expression, and on …

What is Immunometabolism? Immunometabolism is an exponentially growing, multi-disciplinary field of research aiming at deciphering the dynamic cellular and molecular mechanisms that interweave metabolic and immunological processes together. Although the term “immunometabolism” first appeared in the literature in 2011, the first studies investigating the connection between immune and metabolic disorders date back to the late 19th century. Our ex …

Immunotherapy has become a pillar of cancer treatment and has demonstrated great success in many tumour types including non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma and breast cancer. In particular the “Immune checkpoint inhibitors” have improved outcomes for some of the most dismal cancers. As such, the discovery of the two inhibitory receptors that are primarily targeted (PD-1 and CTLA-4) was awarded the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine in 2018 (Nobel Prize, 2018). While responders t …