Harnessing the body's natural defenses
If the body were a country, the immune system would be its national guard. And it couldn't ask for a better homeland defense. The immune system is remarkably effective at protecting us against the millions of pathogens that threaten us daily. We have only to see what happens when our immune system is compromised – from disease, for instance, or by immunosuppressant drugs following organ transplantation – to understand the power it wields when it's operating at full strength.
Our goal is to understand and ultimately control how the immune system defends the body at the molecular and cellular levels. ITI teams, comprised of immunologists, pathologists, microbiologists, infectious disease experts, surgeons, scientists, and clinicians, are attacking these challenges from dozens of different avenues and pooling their talents towards achieving this shared goal.
Bill Gates Visits the Center for Human Systems Immunology at the School of Medicine October 19, 2023
Mr. Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and co-founder of Microsoft, met with investigators at the Center for Human Systems Immunology. Led by Mark Davis, the center's director, and joined by Dean Lloyd Minor, the discussions focused on recent advances in human immunology and their potential impact on addressing global health challenges.
Participants (from left to right): Karen Makar, Taia Wang, Mark Davis, Lloyd Minor, Bill Gates, Catherine Blish, Purvesh Khatri, Gerlinde Obermoser, Peter Kim. Back row: Erin McCaffrey, Chris Karp, Trevor Mundel, Jo DeSimone, Brian Hie, Bali Pulendran, Pras Jagannathan.
Photography: Jim Gensheimer
News
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Wes Brown dies at 63
Brown developed stem-cell therapies for patients who suffered infections after receiving blood or bone marrow transplants.
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Register for RAISE Health symposium
Register for the inaugural RAISE Health symposium, which will convene leaders in artificial intelligence for discussions on safe and responsible AI innovation.
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Pump for kids’ failing hearts
A new type of surgically implanted pump that can support a child’s failing heart has passed the first stage of human testing in a Stanford Medicine-led trial.
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Cell-based therapy for solid tumors
The FDA recently approved the first cell-based therapy — widely used in treating blood cancers — for solid tumors. Stanford Medicine treated the first patient with advanced melanoma.
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Stanford Medicine magazine on psychiatry
The new issue of Stanford Medicine magazine reports on emerging research and innovative treatments to improve mental health.
Human Immune Monitoring Center
HIMC provides standardized, state-of-the-art immune monitoring assays at the RNA, protein, and cellular level, as well as archiving, reporting, and data mining support for clinical and translational studies. In partnership with the research community, we also work to test and develop new technologies for immune monitoring.
ITI Membership
Becoming an ITI Associate Member is open to faculty and researchers affiliated with Stanford University, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The Institute represents a novel interdisciplinary collaboration among clinical scientists and clinicians, engineers, basic and social scientists from throughout the University, united by their interest in immunology, transplantation medicine, infectious disease prevention and treatment.
Conference & Seminars
- Stanford Autoimmunity & Allergy Supergroup (SAAS) Meetings
- ITI Organoid Quarterly Meetings, next mtg: 3-1-24, 12pm, BMI 1021
- Immunology Seminar Series
- Biomedical Seminars
NEWS, EVENTS, DISCOVERIES
- Bali Pulendran, PhD, Named AAAS Fellow
- Why Do Women Have More Autoimmune Diseases? Study Points to X Chromosome
- Stanford researchers think future pandemics could be prevented with universal vaccines
- NOW ON NETFLIX: You are what you eat: A twin experiment
- Finding the needle in the haystack: translating big omics data into actionable clinical biomarkers
- Stanford Scientists studied twins’ diets. Those who ate vegan saw fast results.
- Q&A with ITI Faculty Member Purvesh Khatri
- Two New Faculty Members join ITI: Taia Wang, MD, PhD, MSCI and Tobias Lanz, MD.
- Latest Covid Discovery: Stanford Medicine researchers (the Davis lab) have shown that prior SARS-CoV-2 infection reduces killer T cells’ response to vaccination. These cells are crucial for eliminating the virus from the body.
- 5 Questions: Mark Davis on why immunology research needs a more human focus
- Mark M. Davis is elected 2022-23 AAI President
- The Stanford Autoimmunity & Allergy Supergroup SAAS Seed Grants have been awarded: Eleven proposals were funded.
- Stanford study ties milder COVID-19 symptoms to prior run-ins with other coronaviruses. In COVID-19 patients whose symptoms were mild, Stanford researchers found that they were more likely than sicker patients to have signs of prior infection by similar, less virulent coronaviruses.
- Immune system “clock” predicts illness and mortality
Scientists at Stanford and the Buck Institute have found a way to predict an individual’s immunological decline as well as the likelihood of incurring age-associated diseases and becoming frail. - Modeling human adaptive immune responses with tonsil organoids
- Twins With Covid Help Scientists Untangle the Disease’s Genetic Roots
- How do the new COVID-19 vaccines work?
- Progenitor identification and SARS-CoV-2 infection in human distal lung organoids
- Twin peeks: Stanford inherits twin registry, expanding research options
- $12 million grant renewal for flu vaccine research
- Q&A with Mark M. Davis
- Immunology PhD Seminars Calendar 2021-22
- Biomedical Seminars Calendar 2022
Stanford Human Systems Immunology Center
Stanford University has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate efforts in vaccine development. The $50 million grant over 10 years will build on existing technology developed at Stanford, housed in the Human Immune Monitoring Core, and establish the Stanford Human Systems Immunology Center. The center aims to better understand how the immune system can be harnessed to develop vaccines for the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.
Invest in ITI
As a new venture, the Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection is seeking both volunteer involvement and philanthropic investment from members of the community like you. Your participation can help build awareness and excitement about the Institute's work and provide the financial support needed to launch an exciting new era of innovative medicine.