£5.2M to improve understanding of aging immune system

The grant is part of BBSRC's Strategic Longer and Larger Awards scheme, which gives world-leading teams the time and resources to address areas of key strategic importance. The research focuses on a signalling system called 'NF-kappaB' which plays a key role in regulating how our immune system responds to diseases. Incorrect regulation of 'NF-kappaB' has been linked to cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, viral infection, and improper immune development. Principle Investigator, Professor Michael White of the University of Manchester, explains: "As we get older our immune system tends to get weaker and it becomes increasingly difficult to shake off diseases. At the same time we tend to develop arthritis and other auto-immune diseases. "We know that NF-kappaB plays an important role in these immune responses and determines the fate of cells in the body by switching genes on or off, but we don't know how this process is controlled through normal life. "We will investigate how NF-kappaB signalling is controlled within the body, by processes like the cell division cycle and the sleep-wake cycle of the 24 h circadian clock.