Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of immune systems in all organisms.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's mission is to conduct basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.
Primary immunodeficiencies are disorders in which part of the body's immune system is missing or does not function normally. To be considered a primary immunodeficiency (PID), the immune deficiency must be inborn, not caused by secondary factors such as other disease, drug treatment, or environmental exposure to toxins. Most primary immunodeficiencies are genetic disorders; the majority are diagnosed in children under the age of one, although milder forms may not be recognized until adulthood. While there are over 430 recognized inborn errors of immunity (IEIs) as of 2019, the vast majority of which are PIDs, most are very rare. About 1 in 500 people in the United States are born with a primary immunodeficiency. Immune deficiencies can result in persistent or recurring infections, auto-inflammatory disorders, tumors, and disorders of various organs. There are currently limited treatments available for these conditions; most are specific to a particular type of PID. Research is currently evaluating the use of stem cell transplants (HSCT) and experimental gene therapies as avenues for treatment in limited subsets of PIDs.
An immune disorder is a dysfunction of the immune system. These disorders can be characterized in several different ways:
Humoral immune deficiencies are conditions which cause impairment of humoral immunity, which can lead to immunodeficiency. It can be mediated by insufficient number or function of B cells, the plasma cells they differentiate into, or the antibody secreted by the plasma cells. The most common such immunodeficiency is inherited selective IgA deficiency, occurring between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000 persons, depending on population. They are associated with increased vulnerability to infection, but can be difficult to detect in the absence of infection.
Hans Dieter Ochs, is an immunologist and pediatrician. He is Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle.
The World Allergy Organization (WAO) is an international umbrella organization of 108 regional and national allergology and clinical immunology societies. Since the first World Allergy Congress (WAC) held in Zurich, Switzerland in 1951, there have been 28 WACs as well as a number of WAO International Science Conferences (WISC), Webinars, and Symposia. Beyond sharing research findings, these meetings also allocate funds for postgraduate programs on allergy and clinical immunology.
Stefan Hugo Ernst Kaufmann is a German immunologist and microbiologist and is one of the highly cited immunologists worldwide for the decade 1990 to 2000. He is amongst the 0.01% most cited scientists of ca. 7 million scientists in 22 major scientific fields globally.
The British Society for Immunology, or BSI, is a UK-based organisation of British immunologists but accepts members from all countries. It was founded in November 1956 by John H. Humphrey, Robin Coombs, Bob White, and Avrion Mitchison and is one of the oldest and largest Immunology societies in the world and the largest in Europe. It publishes two scientific journals: Immunology and Clinical and Experimental Immunology.
Paola Ricciardi-Castagnoli, is an Italian Immunologist based in Siena, Italy. Paola is the scientific director of Toscana Life Sciences Foundation (TLS) in Siena. She was former scientific director of the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN).
Alain L. de Weck,, was a Swiss immunologist and allergist. His main scientific contributions were in the area of characterization and prevention of drug allergy. He was the founding director of the Institute of Clinical Immunology at the University of Bern from 1971 to 1993 and authored or co-authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications. He is the recipient of a number of patents that led to commercial allergy products and services. He served as president of international scientific organizations such as the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and the International Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (IAACI) and was founder and later CEO of the Centre Médical des Grand-Places (CMG) company, acquired by Heska of Fort Collins in 1997. In later years he continued his research at the University of Navarra in Spain and wrote on a wide range of topics such as the distinction between science and pseudo-science, the emergence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and comparative health care policy.
Asghar Aghamohammadi was an Iranian (Persian) medical scientist, Immunologist and Immunology professor at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Aghamohammadi had studied in many institutes, including the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the University of Toyama. He had been one of the most distinguished Iranian Immunologists and awarded many national scientific prizes for his works, mostly in the field of primary immunodeficiency. Aghamohammadi is recognized internationally by hundreds of publications in this field and was the most important contributor to awareness of primary immunodeficiencies and to the management of immunodeficient patients in Iran. He had even been regarded as one of the most notable Iranian people in some lists.
Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease (MSMD) is a rare genetic disease. It is a primary immunodeficiency featured by molecular defects in IL12/IFNγ dependent signalling pathway, leading to increased susceptibility to local or disseminated infections by environmental mycobacteria, Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin strain, nontyphoidal and typhoidal Salmonella serotypes.
Nima Rezaei is an Iranian scientist, a professor of clinical immunology and allergy at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Associate Dean of International Affairs in the School of Medicine and the Director of Global Academic Program (GAP). Nima Rezaei is the mastermind, founder and current president of the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). Rezaei is known for his research in Primary Immunodeficiencies, characterization and treatment. He initiated the Iranian Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases Registry (IPIDR) in 1999 under supervision of Professor Asghar Aghamohammadi, which earned him the best research project award in the 4th Avicenna festival.
Narinder Kumar Mehra is an Indian immunologist, head of the department of transplant immunology and immunogenetics of the SRL Limited, Gurgaon. He is a former dean of research and holds the ICMR Dr. C.G. Pandit National Chair at AIIMS. An elected fellow of the International Medical Sciences Academy, The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India, Mehra is known for his research on histocompatibility and immunogenetics. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1992. He received the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit from François Mitterrand in 2003.
Immunopaedia is a non-profit educational website based in South Africa that provides information about basic and clinical immunology and summaries of scientific research in these fields. It was founded by South African HIV researcher Clive Gray to help clinicians in South Africa better address the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the country and developed with funds from an Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation International Leadership Award. It won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's "Science Prize for Online Resources in Education " award in 2010. Immunopaedia is the official provider of online pre-course material for the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) immunology courses.
Inborn errors of immunity (IEI) are genetic mutations that result in an increased susceptibility to infectious disease, autoinflammatory disease, allergy, or autoimmunity. Inborn errors include, but are not limited to, primary immunodeficiencies. As of 2020, there are 431 identified inborn errors of immunity.
Tim Dominik Sparwasser is a German physician, microbiologist and infection immunologist. In 2018, he became director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (IMMH) in Mainz.
Mimi Tang is an Australian immunologist allergist specialized in food oral immunotherapy, such as pairing exposure to peanut proteins with probiotics.
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