Immunology: an overview of the field at Imperial

The human body is a fascinating example of biological synergy, with each system carefully specialised in a vital function. However, the immune system’s quiet work sustains every tissue as it provides the essential yet infinitely complex art of self-defence against pathogens. As this field’s knowledge is nowhere near conquered, it remains an eye-catching discipline for scientists at all stages in their careers, from first year university students choosing optional modules to advanced researchers engineering therapies to fight biology’s toughest challenges. In honour of World Immunology Day (29 April), Felix interviewed four Imperial students and researchers to dive into the motivations, hurdles and breakthroughs that drive the rising interest and progress in this discipline. 

The interviewees, all Imperial students or researchers, included first year BSc Biomedical Sciences student Or Merzer and first year PhD student Maria Cjapi. Felix also had the chance to speak to Associate Professor Dr. Alice Denton, who is researching how vaccines affect connective tissue cells (fibroblasts) and immune system quality, as well as Advanced Research Fellow Dr. Leticia Monin Aldama, who focuses on investigating a special type of immune cells known as gamma-delta T cells. 

“Why are you interested in immunology?”

Immunology means something different for everyone: while for some it is a collection of confusing and complex diagrams no one really understands, for others it is a fascinating glimpse into the complexity of health and disease, which ultimately becomes the focus of an entire career. As first-year undergraduate student Or points out, it is exactly the complexity of this interconnected system that fascinates him: “to understand a part of immunology, you have to understand it all”. PhD researcher Maria also added that her fascination for immunology started by appreciating the “incredibly intricate series of events” and “mechanistic elegance” of the complement system in her first immunology lecture “which, if you are familiar with it, you know it’s not exactly a gentle introduction”, she says. For them, it is the realisation that immunology portrays a deeply “interconnected system working in concert” that draws them into the field.

Immunology sits at the center of many of the modern world’s most pressing challenges. As Dr. Monin Aldama highlighted, “virtually every disease has an immunological component” - understanding immunology allows researchers to better tackle infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmunity and other malignancies. Harnessing immunology also unlocks the possibility of developing “some of the most powerful and useful tools in biological research”, such as monoclonal antibodies, which enabled the specific targeting of cancers and other diseases, identification of disease biomarkers, and precise detection of cell populations in research. Few technologies have so profoundly reshaped how we study biology, diagnose disease, and develop treatments.

Harnessing immunology unlocks some of the most powerful and useful tools in biological research. 

“What do you think makes immunology such an important field today?”

Across all stages of their academic careers, the same idea underpinned the importance of immunology: knowledge in this field is applied not as an isolated discipline but as the core of modern medicine approaches. “Almost every branch of medicine involves immunology,” said Dr. Denton. 

The importance of researching and understanding the immune system most recently became evident and understatood by a more general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Dr. Monin Aldama highlighted, this global challenge sheds light on  concepts like antibody responses and immunomodulatory therapies, which were previously jargon to the public eye. 

From a mechanistic perspective, PhD researcher Maria argues that immunology’s relevance lies in its role as the “mechanistic groundwork that therapeutic development builds on. [One cannot] design a drug without understanding what it is targeting”. Advanced structural biology tools and machine learning approaches that integrate data with patient population characteristics allow scientists to study the immune responses of drugs and treatments to astonishing levels of detail. 

From autoimmunity to cellular conversations: what breakthroughs have changed the field? 

Breakthroughs in immunology come in many forms, from a field-redefining discovery to a niche new technique that enables optimisation, detail and accuracy. In immunology, these headline-making advances were recently joined by the discovery and characterisation of regulatory T cells, earning the Medicine Nobel Prize in 2025. Regulatory T cells (or T regs) are a unique subset of cells specialised in opposing the traditional inflammatory role of immune cells. By suppressing immune activation, they maintain the body’s immune status quo. Their role in preventing immune-mediated self-tissue destruction labels them as the most valuable research and therapy targets for autoimmune conditions, where research increasingly shows that Tregs that are dysfunctional or low in numbers correlate with excessive self-tissue inflammation.  

Another advance that perhaps has gone under the radar more than autoimmunity is the birth of immunometabolism as a field – that of studying how immune cell behaviour depends on metabolic changes, for example, how they fuel responses metabolising either glucose or fats. “The realisation that the metabolic environment cells sit in fundamentally shapes what they can and can’t do completely reframed how we think about immunity”, explained PhD student Maria.

But some of the field’s most transformative advances are not discoveries themselves, but tools that let researchers explore the system in action to an unprecedented level of detail. Dr. Monin Aldama highlighted the development of the LIPSTIC tool by Gabriel Victora’s group at Rockefeller University, which allows mapping of physical interactions between immune cells, allowing researchers to “eavesdrop” on cellular conversations. 

“What are you most excited to see in the future of immunology?”

Looking forward, a clear shift is emerging as scientists work towards building holistic and integrated models of immune responses. As Maria Cjapi described, “the immune system doesn’t work in isolation, it works through interconnected networks of cells, signals and environments”. She explained her PhD work builds on this idea, focusing on providing insights on how the metabolic environment of cells can drive changes in immune responses. Dr. Denton also emphasised the importance of physiological characteristics such as age, chronic conditions or sex when considering immune functions, and how progress in this area will provide a holistic view of immunity and allow the design of more personalised treatments.

Artificial intelligence, in particular the use of machine learning (ML) models, is increasingly recognised by Imperial immunologists as one of the field’s most promising frontiers (read this article to find out more about the future of ML in pharma!). In particular, Dr. Monin Aldama highlights de novo molecule design, the task of engineering from scratch a new inhibitor or activator that acts in a highly specific manner.

As models are trained on increasingly larger pools of data, they are able to explore vast chemical spaces at unparalleled speeds, predicting optimal compounds and generating molecules with any desired properties. As the drug discovery process is transformed, so is the branch of immunology that depends on these therapies, like cancer or autoimmune diseases. 

As past research has focused on understanding the complexity of the immune system, these emerging discoveries and technologies may signal a new era in which researchers ask not only how immunity works but how precisely it can one day be controlled.