Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Banishing Ebola
24 April 2015

Banishing Ebola

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is still ongoing, with over 24,000 recorded cases and no licensed treatment or vaccine. Understanding how the body interacts with – and attempts to fight – the virus is key to developing effective vaccines. B- and T-cells are the body’s defence against disease – when they find infection they will multiply and attack. Importantly, these immune cells will ‘remember’ the illness, creating immunity to re-infection. Until now it was believed that the Ebola virus (pictured) was an immunosuppressant, which limited the body’s ability to fight back in this way. But monitoring the response of B- and T-cells in four patients infected with Ebola showed that there was significant B- and T-cell activation, with particularly large proportions of CD8-type T cells. These T cells targeted specific proteins on the virus, suggesting that medicine containing these proteins will activate the production of CD8 T cells, providing effective future vaccination against Ebola.

Written by Helen Thomas

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.