School of Infection & Immunity

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School of Infection & Immunity

Scientists & clinicians working together to develop research, drug discovery & improvements in patient care in this globally important area.

Basic, applied, clinical and translational research

Infectious, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases place an enormous global burden on human and animal health. The Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation comprises scientists and clinicians working together to promote and develop research, drug discovery and ultimately improvements in patient care in this area of critical international

importance. To achieve this, our aims are ambitious. To understand the basic science of the immune system and how the immune system can in turn promote disease
To understand the biology of parasites, viruses and bacteria and the interactions with their hosts, that in turn leads to high levels of infectious disease worldwide
To develop therapies (drugs and vaccines) targeted on these processes
To explore new treatments and strategies in clinical and translational medicine. All opinion expressed on this page is the personal opinion of those involved and not necessarily representative of the Institute of III or the University as a whole.

30/07/2026

🧑‍🎓 | As part of the recent The University of Glasgow College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences graduation celebrations, a number of Sii undergraduate students were recognised with prizes at our pre-graduation reception in the Glasgow University Union (GUU) Debates Chamber.

Congratulations to this year's recipients:

🥇 School of Infection & Immunity Microbiology Prize: Katie Smith, Ellie Beveridge

🥇 Graham Kerr Memorial Prize: Evannie Birch

🥇 Douglas Marwick Prize: Hollie Knowles

🥇 Life Sciencess Microbiology Prize: Katie Smith, Max Choong, Cassia Taylor

🥇 Microbiology Society Top Student: Katie Smith

🥇 Delphine Parrot Prize: Jamie Hamilton

🥇 British Society for Immunology UG Prize: Peigidh Lyons

🥇 Immunology Prize: Peigidh Lyons

🥇 Fyfe & Arthritis Research Campaign Prize: Eva Birchall, Lara Brannigan, Isla Cogle, Peigidh Lyons, Jamie Hamilton, Sophie Luker, Taitsu Masunaga, Emma Munro, Daisy Nwaka, Lewis Pennie, Imogen Warwick, Tasha Zikayo

28/07/2026

🆕 | A poster by School of Infection & Immunity Research Associate Dr Alfredo Montes Gomez won first prize in the Pulmonology/Inflammation/Infection category at the recent ECFS 2026 Conference.

This year's annual event, the 49th in its history, was held at the Centro de Congressos de Lisboa - CCL in the Portuguese capital from Wednesday, 3 June to Saturday, 6 June 2026.

Dr Montes Gomez's poster, titled The Effect of Staphylococcus Aureus Infection in the Lung Epithelial Barrier in Cystic Fibrosis, was recognised for research exploring how the bacteria affect the lung epithelial barrier during infection and how the lung responds to defend itself.

🔗 Full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1284563_en.html

24/07/2026

🆕 | The School of Infection & Immunity's Professor Harry De Koning recently took part in two significant European engagements, contributing to both research policy and academic leadership.

On Friday, 10 July, Professor De Koning joined COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology colleagues and stakeholders for a conference in Brussels.

As Knowledge Transfer Lead for the COST Action 21111: One Health drugs against parasitic vector borne diseases in Europe and beyond, he presented the Position Paper on integrating early eco-toxicity testing into drug discovery and development workflows.

Earlier that week, on Monday, 6 and Tuesday, 7 July, Professor De Koning also served on a panel of senior European academics responsible for interviewing, selecting and appointing a new Professor of Parasitology at the Universitat de Barcelona.

🔗 Full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1283326_en.html

13/07/2026

🎓 | Everyone at the School of Infection & Immunity sends our warmest congratulations to our Class of 2026 on their recent graduation.

Our Microbiology, Immunology, and Infection Biology cohorts graduated at a ceremony on Monday, 6 July, and enjoyed a reception in the Glasgow University Union (GUU) Debates Chamber beforehand.

08/07/2026

🆕 | An innovative digital research platform developed by School of Infection & Immunity (Sii) Clinical Senior Research Fellow Dr Shaun Chuah to help researchers connect data, reduce duplicated work and accelerate scientific discovery has been showcased in a new Microsoft Research Exchange video.

Foundry120, created by Dr Chuah as part of the Gut Translational Research Group’s work within Sii, grew from practical challenges encountered while running MUSIC, a large multi-centre inflammatory bowel disease biomarker study.

Research data is often distributed across spreadsheets, databases, shared drives and sample storage systems. Foundry120 brings biological samples, pseudonymised clinical data, laboratory results, documents, and analysis outputs together within a governed environment.

Foundry's AI reasoning layer is built using Microsoft Foundry, its platform for developing and governing AI applications and agents, while the wider system is deployed on Microsoft Azure.

Together, these technologies help researchers explore connected information, design analyses and produce transparent, traceable outputs while keeping AI use within the University of Glasgow’s technical, governance and data-access requirements.

Currently, Foundry120 supports five clinical studies and more than 30,000 biological samples across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.

Although initially developed for inflammatory bowel disease research, the platform's underlying approach could be applied across other areas of medical and translational research.

🔗 Full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1281448_en.html

📺 Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldIfC6bIJhw

06/07/2026

🆕 | The School of Infection & Immunity's Professor Nicola Veitch and Dr Claire Donald have co-authored a new study exploring the use of Virtual Reality (VR) to support peer-to-peer learning in higher education.

Their paper, titled Virtual reality peer-to-peer learning: a pilot study investigating peer-to-peer VR supported lessons in higher education outlines, was published in Frontiers in Education.

The associated pilot focused on the use of immersive VR in teaching, alongside the development of a pedagogical framework intended to support collaborative learning in virtual environments.

As part of the project, the team used a bespoke VR Disease Diagnostic application with students, enabling them to work together in a shared digital space.

Professor Veitch and Dr Donald worked in collaboration with University of Glasgow colleagues Sevinj Rustamova, Gabriella Rodolico, Lavinia Hirsu, Imants Latkovskis, and Neil McDonnell.

The work was funded by a Society for Experimental Biology Education Research and Development Grant.

🔗 Read the full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1281081_en.html

📜 Read the paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1800038/full

19/06/2026

🆕 | The School of Infection & Immunity's Dr Shaun Chuah has won an abstract prize at the Glasgow Research and Innovation Conference: Better Care, Brighter Futures, held at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on 3 June 2026.

The award, made in the GI, Hepatology and Rheumatology parallel session, recognised his presentation on ChatIBD, an artificial intelligence tool that supports healthcare professionals caring for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are complex, lifelong conditions, and the clinicians who treat them often need to check detailed guidance on treatments, monitoring, safety, pregnancy, infections and drug dosing.

ChatIBD, developed by Dr Chuah with Dr Beatriz Gros (Reina Sofía University Hospital, Córdoba) and Dr Nikolas Plevris (Western General Hospital, Edinburgh), turns trusted clinical guidelines into quick, readable answers and lets clinicians check the source material behind each one.

The aim is not to replace clinical judgement but to make high-quality medical knowledge easier to access and more consistent at the point of care.

ChatIBD also has the potential to widen access to specialist knowledge globally, particularly where subspecialty expertise or English-language guidance is limited. It is now used by clinicians in more than 75 countries and across 28 languages.

🔗 Full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1278461_en.html

💻 Access ChatIBD: https://www.chatibd.com/

16/06/2026

🎥 | WATCH | Professor Boris Striepen (University of Pennsylvania) discusses how a parasite invades a host cell and remodels its environment to support infection.

The full Centre for Parasitology seminar is available on our YouTube channel for a limited period:

📺 https://youtu.be/nMkmPvCOYGA?si=VTqZVXMtPLNAx2O6

10/06/2026

🆕 | Following the outbreak of Andes hantavirus disease on the cruise ship MV Hondius, UK universities and the UK Health Security Agency have launched a new clinical study to characterise infection and disease associated with Andes hantavirus.

As part of the response, the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research will lead laboratory research coordination and distribution of samples to participating research laboratories on behalf of the consortium, helping to accelerate the UK and international research effort.

The overall study uses the globally recognised Clinical Characterisation Protocol (CCP) of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC).

The ISARIC CCP is a pre-approved, adaptable research framework designed to enable rapid, standardised data and sample collection during emerging infectious disease outbreaks.

A partnership between the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, the University of Liverpool, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and the UKHSA, the study aims to characterise the clinical features and disease progression, identify risk factors for severe outcomes, understand transmission dynamics including evidence for human-to-human spread and support development of clinical management strategies and public health responses.

Building on this preparedness, the new study has been activated rapidly in response to the current situation. Individuals whose repatriation to the UK was coordinated by UKHSA after potential exposure to Andes hantavirus have consented to provide important clinical data and samples, such as blood.

The samples will be characterised at the high-containment research facilities at the UKHSA Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory, and the CVR.

Research teams will characterise viral genomes to track evolution and transmission in the event of positive cases in the UK, define the extent of infection through serological profiling, and investigate cross-reactive immune responses across hantavirus species.

🔗 Read the full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/cvr/engage/news/headline_1271492_en.html

08/06/2026

🆕 | School of Infection & Immunity Research Fellow Dr Megan Sloan has been awarded a 2026 SULSA Postdoctoral Prize for work showing excellent potential to make an impact in the field of life sciences.

Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) is an alliance of 12 Scottish universities and one research institute that aims to advance the country's research and innovation through strategic collaboration.

This prize, which helps exceptional Postdoctoral Researchers to raise their profile in Scotland, includes a fully-funded tour of three Scottish universities, where the awardee will deliver a seminar and meet with staff to develop their independent networks.

In addition, the awardee receives £1,000 of flexible funding to be used at their discretion for attending conferences, buying consumables, attending training courses or visiting collaborators.

🔗 Full story: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/infectionimmunity/newsevents/headline_1275971_en.html

📺 SULSA video: https://youtu.be/nJASKkxqMpA?si=4YG8Ades53mK-oo6

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