Judith Allen is an infectious disease immunologist at the University of Manchester with a particular interest in type 2 immunity, which is the protective response mounted to infection with helminths.  She helped establish the concept that macrophages assume distinct activation states and developmental trajectories in response to different stimuli, highlighting fundamental evolutionary differences between the macrophage response to microbial pathogens versus helminths.  Integrating models of tissue damage and helminth infection, her work helped reveal that type 2 immunity acts not only to limit helminth infection but is important in repair of damaged tissue and regulation of the extra-cellular matrix.

In addition to prestigious funding awards from the Medical Research Council UK and the Wellcome Trust, Judith is a member of EMBO and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences.  She is also an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh.