Grand Challenges lecture series Grand Challenges 2018-2019 | Page 8

GRAND CHALLENGES LECTURE SERIES
Professor Daniel M Davis
HOW CAN WE
CURE DISEASE?
30 JANUARY 2019 1.00PM-2.00PM
KEELE HALL, THE SALVIN ROOM
The immune system holds the key to human health.
The body’s ability to fight disease and heal itself is one
of the great mysteries and marvels of nature. But within
the last few years painstaking research has resulted in
major advances in our understanding of this breathtakingly
beautiful inner world: a vast and intricate network of
specialist cells, regulatory proteins and dedicated genes
that are continually protecting our bodies. Far more
powerful than any medicine ever invented, it also plays a
crucial role in our daily lives. Already we have found ways
to harness these natural defences to create breakthrough
drugs and so-called immunotherapies that help us fight
cancer, diabetes, arthritis and many age-related diseases,
and we are starting to understand whether or not activities
such as mindfulness might play a role in enhancing
our physical resilience. In this talk, Professor Davis will
describe the scientific quest to understand how it works –
and how it is affected by stress, sleep, age and our state
of mind – and explain how this knowledge is now unlocking
a revolutionary new approach to medicine and well-being.
Daniel M Davis is a Professor of Immunology at
Manchester University. His research, using super-
resolution microscopy to study immune cell biology,
was listed in Discover magazine as one of the top 100
breakthroughs of the year. He is the author of The
Compatibility Gene, 2014 and his most recent book,
The Beautiful Cure was published in 2017. He has
published widely; over 120 academic papers, including
articles in Nature, Science and Scientific American.
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