Understanding the genetic basis of immunological processes and their overall dynamics under the influence of population immunogenetics and host-microbe interactions has been at the core of health and disease research. Our understanding of these dynamics has recently undergone a paradigm shift with the application of high-resolution single cell or spatial omics technologies that have facilitated a deeper understanding of healthy or diseased immune milieu. At Genes & Immunity, we wish to revamp the journal to cater to these trends and bring together researchers working at these multidisciplinary interfaces of immunology and genetics, with the aim of advancing fundamental and translational knowledge while revealing new immunotherapy or biomarker modalities.

2020 has witnessed unprecedented situations due to coronavirus pandemic that affected all aspects of life. The whole globe lived months of uncertainty before two companies have announced the incredible results of phase III clinical trials for two different mRNA-based vaccines.

Therapeutic testing in animal models has been the cornerstone of translational medicine. However, this trend is starting to change in favour of non-animal alternatives. Considering the high failure rates of forward translation from animal models to human application, the above paradigm shift is definitely welcome. But the enthusiasm toward this progress should not become the basis for completely replacing animal testing because the reliability and representativeness of non-animal alternatives still needs more investigation. And this particularly applies to analyses of the immune system and validation of immunotherapies. In this editorial, we discuss the application of reverse translation as a possible key to robustly connecting human immune data with animal testing to increase the benefit-to-risk ratio of translating immunotherapies toward prospective clinical trials.

Understanding the genetic basis of immunological processes and their overall dynamics under the influence of population immunogenetics and host-microbe interactions has been at the core of health and disease research. Our understanding of these dynamics has recently undergone a paradigm shift with the application of high-resolution single cell or spatial omics technologies that have facilitated a deeper understanding of healthy or diseased immune milieu. At Genes & Immunity, we wish to revamp the journal to cater to these trends and bring together researchers working at these multidisciplinary interfaces of immunology and genetics, with the aim of advancing fundamental and translational knowledge while revealing new immunotherapy or biomarker modalities.