The Institute for Translational Immunology is creating a formal structure for interdisciplinary projects that combine immunology with cutting-edge technologies in other subfields. But research teams at UW and elsewhere in Seattle have already demonstrated how fruitful these kinds of collaborations can be. During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical researchers from the Seattle Flu Study were the first to identify and track the spread of COVID-19 in the community; their enlistment of bench scientists in the Immunology Department led to a detailed characterization of how immunity develops and persists following both infection and vaccination. Another longstanding collaboration, initially set up to study antibody responses in malaria, allowed investigators to rapidly pivot to discovering and analyzing antibodies that could neutralize the virus behind COVID-19.
Read on to learn more about the scientists and collaborative projects that ITI will continue to facilitate: