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Microbes

IMMUNOLOGY is a fascinating discipline of biology that studies the defenses of our body (humans, animals in general and even plants) against MICROBES (see also art blog on microbes).
The term "Immunology" comes from the latin word immunitas (exemption chore, exemption from service, remission etc..) and must be understood here as a dispense from infectious diseases.

Beautiful inflammation!

We are all familiar with immunology at least through two aspects: fever and vaccination! Indeed, fever is one manifestation of a broader immune response called INFLAMMATION that reflects the struggle of the body against an infectious agent!
VACCINATION (dreaded by children!) is a means whereby our body can be prepared to better fight against infectious agents. This is accomplished by teaching our body how to recognize its opponents.

Vaccine...

Our immune system is therefore the subject of this blog. Whatever your age and background, you should be able to gain information on our immune system and how it fights against microbes. You will also discover that our immune system can also protect us against CANCER but that, conversely, it could also be responsible for ALLERGIES as well as AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES (diseases such as diabetes, lupus, rhumatoid arthritis etc...). More recently, it was found that our immune system also plays a role in obesity or cardiovascular diseases!

How to use this blog? A special page providing interactive documents, video games and quizzes is dedicated to children: learning immunology can be fun!
For olders, a course from the University of South Carolina, School of Medicine is provided together with links to websites of interest, videos etc...Of course, olders can also play video games, make quizzes and crosswords! An interesting manner to learn immunology is through the biography of and discovery made by Nobel Prize winners. A page is dedicated to them. Finally, as this blogs originates from Toulouse, France, you could visit the laboratories working in the field of immunology in this beautiful city!

Note:
This blog also offers links to resources generated by other authors and freely accessible on the net. For this page, external links allow you to access resources provided by Wikipedia, Duskywondersite and VaccineNewsDaily.

AT PRESENT THE TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH VERSION OF THIS BLOG TO THIS ENGLISH VERSION IS SUBOPTIMAL BUT WILL IMPROVE WITH TIME: THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.