Day Of Immunology Research Articles

Entertaining but educational immunology book for children

Entertaining but educational immunology book for children

ASI 2009: Immunology “down under”

ASI 2009: Immunology “down under”

The Day of Immunology 2009

AbstractThe year 2009 sees the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of his major publication On the Origin of Species. Thus, 2009 will witness numerous attempts to interpret scientific results from an evolutionary standpoint. For immunology, this makes a lot of sense. The immune response has evolved as a countermeasure to nature's most evolution‐prone organisms – the microbes. The generation times of many microbes are in the range of minutes to hours, hence a million times faster than humans. Owing to their rapid generation times, microbes are best equipped to follow Darwinian evolution relying on random mutation followed by selection of the fittest.

Joining of forces between EJI and EFIS

Joining of forces between EJI and EFIS

European day of immunology 2006

European day of immunology 2006

European Day of Immunology

European Day of Immunology

The immune response. Some unifying concepts.

FROM the early days of immunology, immediate hypersensitivity responses, or the antibody-mediated reactions, were separated from and contrasted with the delayed hypersensitivity response, or the ce...

Crystallographic Studies of Rabbit and Human Fc Fragments

In the last ten years, single crystal X-ray diffraction studies have led to the elucidation of the tertiary structure of a number of globular proteins. These crystallographic studies have made possible the direct determination of three-dimensional structures in the solid state, the resolution of the actual configuration of enzymatic active sites, and they have stimulated attempts to formulate general principles of peptide chain folding. Since the early days of immunology, many models have been proposed to try to explain the properties of antibodies in terms of molecular configurations of the antigen-binding sites. As a result of physico-chemical studies of proteins associated with the immune response, a number of immunoglobulins and their fragments have been crystallized, opening the way for X-ray diffraction studies of these proteins. In this paper we will review our studies on the structure of the crystalline Fc fragment of normal rabbit and human myeloma IgG. Our results...

Tumour Specificity and Immunological Suppression

ANTISERA toxic for tumours but innocuous for normal tissues have been sought with meagre or questionable success since the early days of immunology. The outcome of most experiments has emphasized the antigenic similarities rather than the disparities between normal and tumour cells so that the existence of tumour-specific antigens has remained entirely hypothetical. Indeed, it would seem rather hopeless to resume the search for tumour-specific antigens were it not for two circumstances. The first of these is the work of Zil'ber1,2 and others in the U.S.S.R. who by means of anaphylactic reactions in the guinea pig have provided strong evidence for the existence of tumour-specific antigens. The second is the phenomenon of immunological suppression, including acquired tolerance for homologous transplants3 and suppression of specific antibody response4 by the introduction of tissues or simple antigens into embryonic or early post-natal mammals. The present experiments were based on the assumption that if one could suppress antibody formation against normal tissues, as suggested by the work of Feldman and Yaffee5, it might be possible to produce antibodies directed exclusively against the specific antigens of tumours—providing such antigens exist. Our results thus far encourage the conclusion that the immunologically suppressed animal provides the long-sought means of producing antisera capable of discriminating between tumours and normal tissues.