Iron and immunity

Two billion people worldwide lack enough iron for their immune cells to function properly, and this project will work out exactly how that breakdown happens. Iron deficiency is already known to cause anaemia, but the researchers recently discovered that white blood cells also depend on iron to mount effective immune responses. This finding opens a new gap in knowledge: no one has systematically mapped how iron levels alter the chemistry inside different types of immune cells, or how that affects the body’s ability to fight infection. The project will fill that gap through three parallel lines of work. If successful, the research could change how vaccines are designed and delivered. Understanding how iron status shapes immune responses may allow clinicians to time vaccinations for when a person’s iron levels are optimal, improving protection. It could also lead to new treatments for autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection by deliberately restricting iron to calm overactive immune cells. This is fundamental science. The immediate payoff is a deeper understanding of a basic biological relationship, not a new drug or device. But similar fundamental work on micronutrients and immunity has previously underpinned everything from oral rehydration therapy to improved childhood vaccination schedules.