Having attended a lecture about the potential benefits of peptide therapy for controlling aberrant immune responses, I was interested to hear about how a radical therapy for curbing allergies could be employed in this treatment. The lecture focused upon peptide immunotherapy as a treatment for curing autoimmunity (i.e. the host immune system attacking itself), this works by providing the individuals immune system with a piece of protein targeted by the response which switches off the destructive process. This mechanism of ignoring self is known broadly as tolerance, in healthy individuals the process of tolerance is successful and occurs around birth, whereas in individuals with autoimmunity 'something' goes wrong. Chinese bee beard competitor People with an autoimmune disease targeting a self protein - like insulin in type 1 diabetes, which results in destruction of beta-cells - have immune cells which have escaped tolerance, recognising self as foreign and destroying the