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Mark Viney awarded £550k NERC grant

10 August 2011

Mark Viney has been awarded a £550k grant from NERC entitled “The determinants of measures of immune function in a wild mammal” to investigate the immune responses of wild mice.

Mark Viney has been awarded a £550k grant from NERC entitled “The determinants of measures of immune function in a wild mammal” to investigate the immune responses of wild mice. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving field ecology (with Michael Pocock, Bristol), laboratory immunology (Eleanor Riley and Julius Hafalla, London) and genetics (Steve Paterson, Liverpool) (with a further £100k funding to London and Liverpool).

While a very great deal is known about the immune responses that laboratory animals make, the responses of wild animals are very poorly understood. The very different lives of wild animals - competing for food and mates, and being exposed to a range of infections - will have profound effects on their immune responses. The aim of this newly funded project is, therefore, to understand what factors in the life of a wild animal determine the strength and nature of their immune responses. Previous work by this team, published in Molecular Ecology [1], has already shown some of the ways in which wild animal immune responses differ from those of their laboratory cousins.

1. Abolins, S.R., Pocock, M.J.O., Hafalla, J.C.R., Riley, E.M. & Viney, M.E. (2011) Measures of immune function of wild mice, Mus musculus. Molecular Ecology, 20, 881-892

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