B Cell Biology for the Twenty-First Century
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 4067
Special Issue Editors
Interests: B cell memory and somatic hypermutation; B cell response to transplantation; inherited primary immunodeficiency; novel cancer therapeutics
2. Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
3. The Transplantation Biology Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Interests: the immunology and cell biology of transplantation; cancer and related fields
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As the term "immunology" first came into use during the first years of twentieth century, adherents of that field, “immunologists”, were engaged in heated debate about “the mechanism by which the animal body is enabled to resist disease” and in urgent efforts to apply new insights to advance “the diagnosis, prevention and cure of human and animal disease” (Gay FP: JAMA 1911;LVI(8):578-583. doi:10.1001/jama.1911.02560080026006). If cells of various types, especially phagocytes, provided a visible correlate of resistance to and clearance of microorganisms, it was the humoral substances of blood, particularly antibodies, that explained the specificity of immunity and provided the quantifiable markers of immunity and the powerful therapeutics that thrust the naiscent field onto the front pages of lay press and into the forefront of biomedical science (Ehrlich--Collected Studies on Immunity, 1906, John Wiley and Sons, London). The ensuing decades of the twentieth century brought a vast body of knowledge about cellular and molecular immunology, mechanisms of disease reistance and susceptibility, and efforts to apply that knowledge in ways the founders of immunology could scarcely imagine. Yet, with the vastly expanded understanding of the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms of innate and elicited immunity, disease resistance, surveillance, prevention and treatment, the emergence of new infectious organisms such as SARS-CoV2 and incomplete control of others such as HIV brings renewed and urgent focus on antibodies and B cells, on antibody titers and specificity, V(D)J defined variable gene repertoires, V region mutations and on therapeutic strategies in which antibodies serve as "first responders”. Will B cells remain at the center of basic and applied immunology as the twenty-second century unfolds? That question will be addressed from a number of perspectives. Experts on the evolution of B cells and B cell products, on basic B cell biology, and investigators exploring invovlement of B cells and antibodies in disease and disease resistance, and in diagnosis and treatment of disease, will identify current frontiers in B cell biology and consider how the field will evolve as this century proceeds.
Dr. Marilia Cascalho
Prof. Dr. Jeffrey L. Platt
Guest Editors
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