UCLA’s expertise in immunology ranges far and wide. UCLA faculty have developed best-in-class T-cell therapies for fighting and beating cancer and for world-leading transplant programs. They have uncovered and invented new ways to prevent and treat infection to meet the challenge of antibiotic resistance. Their groundbreaking discoveries have unlocked the genetics and cell biology of immunity. Now, they are building mathematical models of human health. Here—now—we are harnessing the power of the immune system to prevent, treat, and cure disease.
Steven Bensinger, VMD, PhD
Director, Immunology, Inflammation, Infection & Transplantation (I3T) Research Theme
"It is becoming apparent that the immune system is involved in nearly every disease. Investigators in the I3T Research Theme at UCLA aim to define how the immune system functions in healthy individuals, and how the immune system is altered in disease. Once we fully understand the “rules” of the immune system, then we can harness the immune system therapeutically to cure disease.”
- Steven Bensinger, VMD, PhD
The Immunology, Inflammation, Infection, and Transplantation Research Theme (I3T) at UCLA is a large community of scientists and clinicians studying how the immune system operates in healthy individuals, and how the immune system becomes dysfunctional in disease. The I3T has 200+ scientists and physicians at UCLA engaged in basic, translational, and clinical research with the goal of harnessing the immune system to treat disease and cure individuals.
Did you know that as a group, autoimmune diseases are among the leading causes of death in U.S. women less than 65 years old?
They are as common as heart disease, and twice as common as cancer. And worse, conventional drugs used to treat autoimmune disease increase risks of infection and cancer. Let’s find better and safer ways to prevent and treat autoimmune disease.
Did you know that 1-in-6 cancers are caused by a preventable infection?
From viruses such as hepatitis, HPV and HIV—to bacterial infections such as Helicobacter and otherpathogens we do not yet realize cause cancer, an ounce of prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure. Let’s stop cancer before it even starts by preventing cancer-causing infections through vaccination, early detection and effective treatment.
Did you know that cancers result from immune dysfunction?
Rogue cells that have the potential to become cancerous arisein each of us every day. Cancer only occurs when the immune system fails to detect, clear and remember these cells. And some cancers even outsmart the immune system to survive, grow and spread. Let’s find new ways to predict immune system failure and restore immune health to prevent and cure cancer.
Did you know the U.S. census has projected a nearly 90% increase in the number of persons aged 65 or more in the next 20 years?
And because medical need for organ transplantation increases as a function of age, there is an urgent need for solutions. Let’s find better ways to more successfully transplant organs and prevent organ rejection without putting the patient as risk for infection or cancer.
