British Society for Immunology (BSI)

The British Society for Immunology's mission is to promote excellence in immunological research, scholarship and clinical practice in order to improve human and animal health. They accomplish this by:
• Providing the immunology community with support to establish more connections and enhance collaboration, both within their field and with other related scientific disciplines and between sectors.
• Providing sector-leading support to attract and retain talent in immunology.
• Influencing and improving the external environment to enable immunology to thrive and deliver positive outcomes for health.

History
The BSI is one of the oldest, largest, and most active, immunology societies in the world and is one of the largest in Europe. Their members are based all over the world, with the majority working in Britain.

The BSI was founded in 1956 by a small group of hard working, visionary immunologists, who wanted to come together to share ideas. The idea of a society had been mooted some two years earlier at a meeting at Trinity College, Cambridge. The founding group included John Humphrey, Bob White, Robin Coombs and Av Mitchison.

Their members work throughout the entire immunology chain, stretching from the laboratory bench right through to the clinics and hospitals in which patients are treated - from discovery to delivery. The fields in which they work are wide and extensive, from HIV/AIDS to allergy, diabetes, malaria, TB, animal health, arthritis, transplantation, vaccination and infectious disease.