We have designated Thursday 16 March as our ‘Day of Autoimmunity’ and throughout the day we will be highlighting different autoimmune resources from our website and journals. Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s own immune system misdirects its responses and attacks healthy body tissue. Over 80 autoimmune diseases have been identified, affecting approximately 8% of the population. Autoimmune disease has a significant effect on patients’ lives and the BSI wants to improve understanding and appreciation of the importance of research into these conditions.
Highlights of our resources include:
- Autoimmunity briefing – read our policy briefing summarising our current knowledge on autoimmune diseases and highlighting the importance of supporting autoimmune research.
- The enemy within? New perspectives on autoimmune disease – read this fascinating article from our 60th anniversary report containing interviews with leading researchers in the field telling the tale of autoimmune research and what the future holds for this exciting discipline.
- The BSI journals, Clinical & Experimental Immunology and Immunology, recently published a joint virtual issue focussing on ‘Highlights in autoimmunity: pathogenesis, pathology and clinical features of disease’. You can find out more about this issue in our video interview with the journal editors, Professor Danny Altmann and Professor Mark Peakman, and read all the review articles featured in this issue free of charge.
- Autoimmunity: self-defence gone wrong – watch our video interview with Dr David Morgan from the University of Bristol about what autoimmunity is, how it develops and what the current and potential future treatments are.
- On our BiteSized Immunology resource, we have several articles to allow you to discover more about autoimmunity and some of the common autoimmune conditions. Articles include autoimmunity, autoinflammation, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease.
- From our recent 60 objects project, find out more about how autoimmunity was first identified through our examination of object 15: the thyroid
- Clinical & Experimental Immunology recently published a virtual issue on ‘Type 1 diabetes: insights into pathophysiology, treatments and interventions’, featuring some of the key reviews and papers published in our journal the mechanisms underlying the development of type 1 diabetes and different treatment strategies under investigation, in both humans and mouse models.
Follow our social media channels to find out more:
- BSI Twitter channel - @britsocimm
- BSI Facebook page
- BSI Instagram page - britsocimm
- Clinical & Experimental Immunology journal Twitter channel - @CEIjournal
- Immunology journal Twitter channel - @immjournal