Current demand for immunologists is stable, but the focus of their work is changing, says Philippa Marrack, an immunologist at the National Jewish Medical Center who has gained worldwide renown for her pioneering studies of T-cells. We're now looking more at applications. Basic research has opened the way for those applications. The past eight years, for example, have seen a growth of interest in tumor immunology. There's also the discovery that we can use T-cells to attack tumors, certainly in melanomas.
Tumor immunology is just one of several hot topics in the discipline today.
Autoimmunity is important if you have a good idea. There's increased interest in the general processes of inflammation and how they contribute to other diseases, such as atherosclerosis. And some basic questions remain on how the immune system works. Those basic questions won't be easy to solve. Another area of fundamental research relies on the fact that, in appropriate environments, animals can live without immune systems.