Studies of immunological diversity 

Summary

Our white blood cells fight off infection and keep us healthy.  By analysing blood samples from healthy individuals using biological tools, we can identify those cells that have responded to particular infections and fought off disease.  This allows us to ask how much variation there is in the white blood cells that can respond.

In this study, we plan to examine a particular set of white blood cells, known as T cells, that have responded to common viral infections. This research will help our understanding of the diversity of cells responding in healthy immune responses. Such information can enable future comparisons to ask how things go wrong in a disease state.  

Participation: For this study we recruited 50 male volunteers, aged 30-55, from the Cambridge BioResource to give a 50ml blood sample. 10 volunteers were asked to come back for a second blood sample. Study visits were run by the Cambridge BioResource team.

Organisation: This study is organised by Professor Gillian Griffiths from the University of Cambridge.