The Danish National Research Foundation establishes new research center at Statens Serum Institut
10 October 2011
Danish National Research Foundation has initiated contract negotiations on the establishment of 11 new Centers of Excellence. One of the selected centers is the Center for Non-Specific Effects of Health Interventions (CENSEI), led by Christine Stabell Benn, Statens Serum Institut.
CENSEI's purpose is to gain better understanding of the immune system and how it may be modulated by vaccines and vitamins.
Christine Stabell Benn will head the new Center of Excellence, CENSEI, established by the Danish National Research Foundation
According to the current understanding, the immune system is characterised by specificity, i.e. the ability to recognise and respond to a specific infection with a very specific reaction. This means that a vaccine against a disease will establish immunity against just that disease - and nothing else.
In the small West African country of Guinea-Bissau, the group behind CENSEI, Bandim Health Project, has discovered that this is a simplistic view.
CENSEI’s research indicates that the immune system is a learning system. Like the brain it learns from its experiences and transfers these experiences to other situations. Thus, besides the specific effects, vaccines have also non-specific effects on the immune system's general resistance. An example is measles vaccine, which not only protects against measles, but also increases the resistance to other diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea, and lowers overall mortality by up to 50%. Another example is the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis, which lowers the mortality rate in the first fragile month of life by 45%. The non-specific effects may be enhanced if vitamins are administered at the same time. Intriguingly, the findings suggest that boys and girls have different immune systems and are affected quite differently by vaccines and vitamins.
With funding from the Danish National Research Foundation CENSEI will conduct new studies in Guinea-Bissau to better understand the remarkable beneficial effect of measles vaccination against other diseases. Additionally, CENSEI will investigate whether BCG vaccine also has a beneficial effect in Denmark. Mortality is fortunately not a big problem in Denmark, but allergic diseases are increasing, and several studies suggest that BCG vaccine’s generalised stimulation of the immune system also reduces the risk of allergic diseases.
CENSEI's goal is to increase our understanding of the immune system and its ability to learn from experience. Another core research area is the differences between boys’ and girls’ immune systems. Maybe we need to treat boys and girls differently to treat them equally. The results are expected to lead to changes in the health programmes. In this way, CENSEI unite basic research and applied research.