LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
LETTER
FROM THE
EDITOR I n the animated movie Osmosis Jones, Ozzy, a thrill seeking white blood cell with a good sense of humour fights off a deadly virus after Frank the human applies the ‘ten second rule’ to a dropped hard-boiled egg. Though fictional, Ozzy’s adventure depicts the magnificence and significance of the human immune system. Nearly every cell, organ, and tissue in the body is involved in this well-coordinated network that fights infection. But what happens when things go awry in autoimmune diseases, cancer, and inflammatory diseases? With the help of our experts, we address the immune system in this Winter issue of the IMS Magazine.
To understand autoimmune disease, we sat down with Dr. Alan Lazarus and Dr. Murray Urowitz to discuss therapeutic antibodies and novel subtypes of systemic lupus erythematosus. In addition, Dr. Li Zhang explains to us how we can boost the immune system to combat cancer in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. We also talk about the hygiene hypothesis in light of the recent rapid rise to atopic disorders, and look into the immune privileges of the central nervous system.
ANNETTE YE Editor-in-Chief, IMS Magazine Annette is a fourth year PhD candidate at the Institute of Medical Science. She is currently conducting research on biomarker discovery in neurodevelopmental disease at the Hospital for Sick Children.
As we welcome the new year, we look back upon 2015 with a special Year in Review highlights of newsmakers in the science community. We also bring you closer to the IMS community with a recap of our annual Ori Rotstein Lecture in Translational Research, and brought back our ‘Spotlight’ articles featuring IMS faculty and students. This issue, we chatted with Dr. Mario Masellis and PhD Candidates Li Guo and Serisha Moodley. They offer just a glimpse of the many compelling stories of who we are at the IMS, and I strongly encourage you to have a look. I would like to thank Dr. Mingyao Liu and the IMS department for their ongoing support, and congratulate the design team on another brilliant production of this magazine. Thank you to the incredible IMS Magazine team for their dedication and enthusiasm. To you, our readers and supporters, please feel free to add your own thoughts to any of the stories in this issue at theimsmagazine@gmail.com as we continue to showcase to you the best of the IMS. Happy reading!
Annette Ye, Editor-in-Chief, IMS Magazine Photo credit Tahani Baakdhah
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