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IHA Race for Life teams kicks off with Bake Sale

The ladies of the IHA who this year will be participating in Cancer Research UK's 'Race for Life' successfully held a bake sale on Wednesday and raised an impressive £290 towards their total goal! A huge variety of delicious cakes, generously baked by the team and their friends from the IHA, were snapped up by hungry staff and students alike. Thanks team and well done! If you would like to make a donation to this worthy cause please visit the team's JustGiving page at: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org More...

Published: May 10, 2013 10:26:26 AM

Giovanna Vinti awarded UCL Green Impact Award

We are delighted to announce that the 'Green-Darwin' Green Impact Team has won two Bronze Awards which were presented by the Provost at an Awards Ceremony held last week. The IHA's Giovanna Vinti secured the first award for 'Green-Darwin Labs' and the 'Green Darwin' team won a second.

These fantastic achievements form part of the efforts of the wider UCL community in pressing forward the green agenda. Awards went to teams across UCL for work that included putting up awareness-raising notices and posters encouraging people to switch off lights and equipment when not needed, potentially saving 7,038kg CO2 per year; and likewise to print and photocopy double-sided, potentially saving 108,594kg CO2 and £40,220 on resource costs this year across the institution. More...

Published: Apr 30, 2013 10:37:33 AM

Carolina Soto Palma to attend The Times Cheltenham Science Festival

Congratulations to Carolina Soto Palma, an MRes student under the supervision of Dr. Gene Schuster, who has been awarded one of only ten UCL Graduate School bursaries to attend The Times Cheltenham Science Festival. More...

Published: Apr 24, 2013 3:37:38 PM


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Arne Akbar

3 April 2012

20 September 2011


A study led by Professor Arne Akbar, Associate of the IHA, was published today.  The work focussed on ways to revitalise white blood cells that were thought to have been deactivated after fighting infections.

Previous research had suggested that white blood cells had a finite lifespan, meaning they gave less protection as a person aged.  This was thought to be determined by 'caps' on the end of DNA called telomeres which get shorter as the body fights infection.  Prof Akbar's team showed however that some white cells were inactive yet had long telomeres, suggesting another mechanism in the immune system was switching them off.  When they blocked off the newly identified pathway, they found that the white blood cells appeared to 'come to life' again.

For more on this story, see the following links:

Press coverage
Journal of Immunology
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