An exciting and inspiring few days spent in Dublin’s Convention Centre for the European Congress of Immunology (ECI) 2024, where Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute sponsored a symposium on Wellmune-Induced Innate Trained Immunity.
ECI is an event in its seventh year, organised by the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), that represents more than 14,000 individual immunologists from 35 immunological societies from all across Europe. This event was attended by over 2000 expert delegates across research, academia, and industry.
The KHNI symposium was led by our research partner Dr Fredrick Sheedy (Trinity College Dublin), who presented the latest research on yeast beta glucan Wellmune and innate immune training to a fully attended room of immunologists. This research has been recently published in peer reviewed journal.
The title of the session was: Wellmune-induced trained immunity: a model for investigating the in-vitro and in-vivo effects of yeast β-glucans on innate immune function.
Key takeaways from the symposium:
- The significance of trained immunity – an important feature is that this type of immune memory imparts broad (non-specific) protection towards subsequent challenges.
- Trained immunity is a manifestation of memory in innate immune cells. The longevity of the memory induced can be long lasting.
- According to recent research it is now possible for nutritional interventions to induce trained innate immunity, in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated this with yeast beta-glucan Wellmune.
- Metabolic reprogramming and epigenetic changes play a role in the mechanism of action.
A lively Q&A session wrapped up the symposium with lots of interest in this novel area of research. The ECI poster presentation sessions were equally informative, with a special mention to Dr Mimmi Lundahl, RDA Senior Scientist for Kerry & Researcher in Residence at Trinity College Dublin who presented a poster on Innate Immune Training Through Diet with yeast beta-glucans.
Check out Mimmi’s recent KHNI article on Innate Immune Training for an overview of this novel area of immune health research.
