New research provides important insights into the role played by the immune system in preventing – and in some cases increasing the severity of – COVID-19 symptoms in patients. It also finds clues to why some people experience ‘long COVID’.
Scientists have tracked the very early stages of human foetal gut development in incredible detail, and found specific cell functions that appear to be reactivated in the gut of children with Crohn’s Disease.
“In many parts of the world people still live with the daily threat of diseases like cholera, typhoid, and malaria. In reality COVID is just another infection,” says Professor Gordon Dougan.
Researchers have identified a series of genetic variants that affect the severity of Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease – but surprisingly, none of these variants appear to be related to an individual’s risk of developing the condition in the first place.
A new mechanism that affects how our immune cells perform – and hence their ability to prevent disease – has been discovered by an international team of researchers led by Cambridge scientists.
The University of Cambridge has been awarded £2 million from the UK Medical Research Council and the Government of India’s Department for Biotechnology to develop a partnership with the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in Chennai.
Discovery could lead to new treatments for this genetic disorder.
© 2026 University of Cambridge