Transforming the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions

Professor Adrian Liston (2023) is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Aila Biotech, a Cambridge-based spin-out company developing disease-modifying therapies for neurological conditions driven by chronic inflammation, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury.

Alia Biotech has developed a new class of brain-targeted immunotherapies, using a patented platform that enables immune-modulating biologics to be produced locally at sites of inflammation within the brain. By targeting treatment directly to sites of disease, the platform is designed to deliver sustained therapeutic activity while reducing systemic exposure and toxicity.

Professor Liston commented, “Our mission is to change the way neuroinflammatory diseases are treated to transform the lives of patients, backed by the best Cambridge has to offer in terms of clinical, biotech and regulatory expertise.”

Aila Biotech is currently raising a Seed round to advance its lead programme to first-in-human clinical trials and advance additional high-value biologics within the platform. The team recently won the Technimede Open Prize and also joined the ‘Founders at the University of Cambridge’ START 3.0 cohort, an intense accelerator programme and founder community.

Professor Liston added, “This is a unique opportunity for us to translate more than a decade of pre-clinical development into a new medicine that has the potential to transform lives. This is the moment we have been working towards – using the latest advances in immunology, neuroscience and biotechnology to address diseases where patients urgently need better treatment options.”

Read the full article, Catz startups turning research to real world benefit

A STEM Career Adventure Book for Future Scientists

Inspired by real careers in biomedical science, this interactive narrative-style book lets readers explore how every choice can shape a scientist's future.

Written by Laura Tran, PhD

Sep 1, 2026

For students considering a career in science, it can feel as though every decision—from exam results and university choices to internship projects and mentors—will determine their future. In reality, scientific careers are rarely defined by a single moment. Every scientist has a story, and no two are the same. Some begin with a lifelong dream, while others emerge through unexpected detours, changing ambitions, and moments of pure luck.

In The Professor, the Pipette, and the Path Not Taken: Choose Your Science Career, University of Cambridge immunologist Adrian Liston and neuroimmunologist James Dooley invite readers to chart their own interactive stories. Rather than reinforcing the idea of a single "right" path, Liston and Dooley wanted to show that careers in science are rarely linear—and that resilience, curiosity, and adaptability often matter far more than a flawless academic record.

For Liston, the inspiration for this science communication project began at home. When his son was young, he searched for ways to explain his work in terms a preschooler could understand. As his son grew older, Liston realized that while his own child understood what a scientist was and how a career in science worked, many of his peers did not.

"There's this concept that circulates among kids at this age that if you don't ace your exams or get into the top university, then basically your whole career is burnt bread," Liston explained. "Everything collapses if it's not perfect, but that's not a healthy framework." That misconception became the spark for the book.

Years of mentoring young researchers together in the lab they co-lead had shown both Liston and Dooley that scientific careers rarely follow a straight path. This led them to join forces to show juniors that there is no single blueprint for becoming a scientist.

The book allows readers to step into the shoes of a student beginning a career in science, making choices that shape their journey from the classroom to the laboratory and beyond. Along the way, readers navigate scenarios such as less-than-stellar high school grades, deciding whether to move across the world for research opportunities, facing ethical dilemmas, and many other challenges scientists may encounter. In total, there are 277 branching pathways with 10 unique possible endings.

For Liston, one of the book's most important messages is that setbacks are rarely permanent. "If things go bad, it doesn't impact your whole life," he said. "You can make a few good choices later and get everything back on track."

Liston hopes readers understand that “there is no fast track through science.” While doing well in exams can be beneficial, there is more nuance to a successful science profession. “It's type of career that actually rewards putting in the effort, having resilience, being able to keep on going and keep on working at a problem. It's also the type of career that there are many different ways to succeed.”

For some characters, success means finding a stable, well-paying job that supports life outside of work. Others discover professional fulfillment through research, teaching, leadership, or making meaningful contributions to society.

“There’s not an optimal pathway through life,” said Liston. “The best pathway through life is one that you enjoy along the way.”

Read the article over at The Scientist or buy the book.

Lab retreat 2026

Dr Arman Ghodsinia

Celebrating the successful PhD defence of Dr Arman Ghodsinia!

What is immunotherapy and how does it treat cancer and other conditions?

From infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders, a wave of trials offers hope

Ian Sample, the Guardian

Liston, the cofounder of Cambridge spin-out Aila Biotech, is developing a Treg therapy for multiple sclerosis, a disease caused by immune cells attacking the nervous system by mistake. The therapy aims to boost Tregs in the brain to call the attack off.

The potential for Tregs is vast. Therapies are in the pipeline for dementia and autoimmune diseases from type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis to lupus and chronic inflammation.... “Probably half of all deaths have a component that is immunological,” says Liston. “It is an underlying theme across ageing, autoimmune diseases, allergies, infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases like diabetes. But one of the great things about the immune system is that it is very easy to change. We can adapt it to our purposes.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/what-are-immunotherapies-and-how-do-they-treat-cancer-and-other-conditions

Using local cytokine delivery to prevent lung pathology

We have an exciting new story out at Science Immunology! It uses AAV-mediated cytokine delivery to change the lung environment. We can boost lung Tregs or deliver anti-inflammatory cytokines, preventing fatal respiratory collapse.

This story started during the COVID pandemic. Our first Cambridge PhD students joined during lockdown, and a talented student, Ntombizodwa Makuyana (now Dr Ntombizodwa Gentry), wanted to work on a potential therapeutic.

James and I had only just moved to Cambridge, and we still had a team in Belgium. They were processing clinical samples from COVID patients, so we already had a good idea that the respiratory failure was driven by excessive inflammation.

At the time we had been working on a system to boost Tregs in the brain. Our AAV system was working great, so we thought "what if we tried to do the same thing in the lung?" It took quite some trial and error, but eventually we found that intranasal delivery of AAV6.2 with the CC10 promoter limited expression of our cargo limited to the lung.

The system works great! AAV6.2.CC10 driving IL2 production gives an expansion of lung Tregs without impacting other sites, even the draining LN of the lung. And it is not just IL2 - in the same way we can drive IL10 or IL1RA in the lung without altering systemic levels. Pick your own cargo!

We never ended up testing it in SARS-CoV2 infection - by that point the vaccine had come along. But COVID isn't the only important lung infection. You might not even have heard of one of the most deadly: Influenza-Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis (IAPA).

Aspergillus is a fungus common in decaying soil, that can infect the lung. For healthy individuals it is rarely a problem, and is easily cleared. But Aspergillus is a hidden killer. The Joost Wauters, Greetje Vande Velde and Stephanie Humblet-Baron teams teams had found that coinfection of influenza and aspergillus is extremely deadly, with an ICU mortality rate of >50%, and lethal coinfection in mice.

So James, Oliver and Milla headed over to Belgium and teamed up with Laura Seldeslachts and Lauren Michiels to test our AAV-cytokine delivery approach in coinfected mice. Success! In every measure we tested, our treatment reduced severity from fatal respiratory failure down close to a regular flu infection.

The best part is, because we only altered lung immunology, the anti-viral responses from the LN were intact, so we could reduce lung inflammation without giving the infection a free-pass. This is why tissue immunology has such potential - only hit the site needed!

Thanks to the ERC, Wellcome Trust and FWO for funding. 

Read the full story here

Self-Doubt: An Anthology of Experiences in the Biomedical Sciences

Introducing our new book, "Self-Doubt: An Anthology of Experiences in the Biomedical Sciences". 

Have you ever had a crisis of self-doubt? A feeling that you are out of your depth and are not cut out for a career in science? I have. At the time I thought it was just me.

After decades of mentoring PhD students and postdocs, I now believe self-doubt is near-ubiquitous, an occupational hazard in science. The hardest part of dealing with your self-doubt believe you are alone in your thoughts. So my lab members and alumni have shared their own stories of career self-doubt.

If you know anyone in science who is doubting their path, please share this book with them (Amazon, Great British Bookshop) so that they know they are not alone

Lung Tregs at the Midwinter Conference

I am very fortunate to be at the Harald von Boehmer Midwinter Conference, courtesy of amazing conference organisers Ludger Klein and Lisa von Boehmer. Highly recommended as one of the best immunology conferences around - I've really been inspired by the great talks in every session. For those of you who would like a taster of the conference, here is my presentation - all unpublished work, covering FlowCode analysis of tissue Tregs, resolving spectral flow cytometry limitations through AutoSpectral, and using a novel AAV-based system of cytokine delivery to the lung to treat Influenza-Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis. A sneak peak at the work currently going on in the lab! 

Our lab in numbers

We've just had our 200th person join the lab! Welcome to Ida Jobe! I could write books about them as individuals (and have!), but here are our lab members in statistics:

• 38% domestic, 62% international from 54 countries
• 66% women, 33% men, 1% non-binary
• 78% from under-represented groups

New lab photo