La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology

La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) is a non-profit medical research institution founded in 1988 and located in La Jolla, California. The institution's main focus is understanding the immune response to infectious agents and cancers and on advancing progress toward the prevention, treatment and cure of immune system diseases. Researchers explore the body's defense system at the molecular and cellular levels, making important discoveries about how the immune system works and the causes of immune system disorders. By unraveling the complexities of the immune system, LIAI researchers are providing critical insights that are moving science closer to the prevention, treatment and cure of numerous illnesses including infectious diseases and cancer, as well as immune system disorders such as diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Mission

The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology is dedicated to increasing knowledge and improving human health through studies of the immune system. Our essential purpose is to expand our understanding of how the immune system works and to discover the causes of immune system disorders. The knowledge gained through our research can, in turn lead to the prevention, treatment and cure of a wide range of human diseases.

Breakthroughs

A cure for type 1 diabetes

Matthias von Herrath, M.D., is edging closer to a goal—a cure for type 1 diabetes. Von Herrath and his fellow researchers' development of a combination therapy is showing significant promise in type 1 diabetes when caught in the early stages. The therapy is headed for human clinical trials in 2008. [http://www.liai.org/pages/diabetes-research Read more] update after|2008|12|31

"Emerging and Infectious Disease"The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology launched the Center for Infectious Disease in 2006, focusing research efforts on new and re-emerging infectious diseases such as West Nile virus and avian flu, along with potential bioterrorist agents such as smallpox. Led by renownedFact|date=September 2008 vaccine expert Alessandro Sette, Ph.D. and principal investigator Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., the Center for Infectious Diseases is home to the world's largest database on how the immune system responds to infectious diseases, the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB). [http://www.liai.org/pages/infectious-disease Read more]

"Key Role in Biodefense"Shane Crotty, Ph.D., a principal investigator at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, identified an antibody that could be the nation's first line of defense in protecting against a terrorist smallpox outbreak. Crotty's work is one of several La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology projects under way that play a key role in the nation's biodefense efforts. In 2005, while studying long-term immunological memory to the smallpox vaccine, Crotty identified the anti-H3 antibody in humans that quickly fights the smallpox virus. This is a vital finding since the younger portion of the U.S. population is not vaccinated (routine U.S. smallpox immunization ended in 1972). Crotty is currently analyzing how to mass-produce the antibody so it may be stockpiled nationally, along with the smallpox vaccine. [http://www.liai.org/pages/faculty-crotty Read more]

"Natural Killer T-Cells and Lyme Disease"Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., found that a bacterium transmitted by the tick bite, and which causes Lyme disease, stimulates an immune attack by the NKT cells—a major discovery considering this is the first disease-causing microorganism (and only the third substance on earth) known to naturally activate NKT cells. [http://www.liai.org/pages/lyme-disease-research Read more]

External links

* [http://www.liai.org/ La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology Home Page]