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This case study introduces students to the complex field of immunology and the wide variety of host-pathogen interactions that drive evolutionary change.  The case begins with a basic overview of the phases of the immune response and how each contributes to host defense against an invading pathogen.  In order to delve deeper into each phase, students explore the metaphor of a battle in which a host and pathogen are locked in combat in order to understand the individual components of the immune response.  Once students successfully understand how the immune system works in general, they are then asked to think creatively about how a pathogen that wants to survive could evolve to evade the immune response, and to find concrete examples in the literature.  The overall goal is for students to gain a deeper understanding of the immune response and how host-pathogen interactions drive coevolution of both host immune components and the pathogen itself. The case was originally designed for an introductory biology course, but can easily be adapted for use in a variety of different courses and levels.

A person may become immune to a specific disease in several ways. For some illnesses, such as measles and chickenpox, having the disease usually leads to lifelong immunity to it. Vaccination is another way to become immune to a disease.

Why did you get the flu this winter, but your co-workers didn't? The answer, according to a new study of twins, may have less to do with your genes and more to do with your environment-including your past exposure to pathogens and vaccines. Our immune system is incredibly complex, with diverse armies of white blood cells and signal-sending proteins coursing through our veins, ready to mount an attack on would-be invaders. Everyone's immune system is slightly different-a unique mixture of hundreds of these cells and proteins. But the main driver of this variation is unclear. Although scientists know that our immune system can adapt to our environment-that's why vaccines work, for instance-it is also built by our genes.

Quintana-Murci and his colleagues also took advantage of a previously published map of areas of the human genome where Neanderthal genes are present, showing that innate immune genes are generally more likely to have been borrowed from Neanderthals than genes coding other types of proteins. Specifically, they noted that 126 innate immune genes in present-day Europeans, Asians, or both groups were among the top 5 percent of genes in the genome of each population most likely to have originated in Neanderthals. The cluster of toll-like receptor genes, encoding TLR 1, TLR 6, and TLR 10, both showed signs of having been borrowed from Neanderthals and having picked up adaptive mutations at various points in history. Meanwhile, a group led by Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, used both the same previously published Neanderthal introgression map that Quintana-Murci used and a second introgression map. The researchers searched for borrowed regions of the genome that were especially long and common in present-day humans, eventually zeroing in TLR6, TLR10, and TLR1. These receptors, which detect conserved microbial proteins such as flagellin, are all encoded along the same segment of DNA on chromosome four.

15min How do vaccines prevent disease - even among people too young to get vaccinated? It's a concept called "herd immunity," and it relies on a critical mass of people getting their shots to break the chain of infection. Health researcher Romina Libster shows how herd immunity contained a deadly outbreak of H1N1 in her hometown. (In Spanish with subtitles.)

This interactive module introduces the anatomy of the immune system and walks through the timeline of a typical immune response.  The timeline includes the differences between the first time a pathogen is encountered versus subsequent infections, including an explanation of how vaccines work. Different tabs, videos, images, questions, and a detailed glossary of terms allow this resource to be explored at varying levels of depth depending on the class. Refer to the "Educator Resources" tab in the Click & Learn for implementation suggestions. 

Germs are everywhere: in school, at home, at the gym, at the mall, even on your computer! You're constantly exposed to germs. Fortunately for most of us, our immune systems defend us against germs and microorganisms daily to keep us healthy and prevent infection. The following discussion questions and activities will help your students learn all about the immune system.

Every second of your life you are under attack. Bacteria, viruses, spores and more living stuff wants to enter your body and use its resources for itself. The immune system is a powerful army of cells that fights like a T-Rex on speed and sacrifices itself for your survival. Without it you would die in no time. This sounds simple but the reality is complex, beautiful and just awesome. An animation of the immune system.

Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found.

DNA acquired from breeding with Neanderthals may explain why people of European descent respond differently to infection than those of African descent, two studies suggest. The findings might also offer insight into why people of African descent are more prone to autoimmune diseases caused by an overactive immune system.

In a stunning discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist.

An overview of the immune system, concentrating on the roles played by B and T lymphocytes, and the antigen-presentation system.

WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- In a step toward personalized vaccines against cancer, scientists report they have developed an immune-system therapy that knocks out several types of aggressive tumors in mice. German researchers said the findings, reported April 22 in the journal Nature, could lead to a "blueprint" for developing tailored vaccines for a range of cancers. Such vaccines would be designed for individual patients, based on the specific genetic mutations in their tumors.

Call it a scientific oddity-or a medical miracle. A girl who grew up with a serious genetic immune disease was apparently cured in her 30s by one of her chromosomes shattering into pieces and reassembling. Scientists traced the woman's improvement to the removal of a harmful gene through this scrambling of DNA in one of her blood stem cells-a recently identified phenomenon that until now had only been linked to cancer.

A musical description of the non-specific (innate) immune response.

Ah, spring. Grass growing, flowers blooming, trees budding. For those with allergies, though, this explosion of new life probably inspires more dread than joy. So what's behind this annual onslaught of mucus? Eleanor Nelsen explains what happens when your immune system goes rogue.

It's peak cold and flu season, and mucus is making many of our lives miserable. But despite being a little icky, phlegm gets a bad rap. This germ-fighting goo contains cells and chemical compounds that help us power through a cold. You can also think of mucus as a traffic light for your health - what turns up in our used tissues can be a useful clue about the inner workings of our immune systems.

At the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington DC this week, Wolchok and other researchers will report on their search for immunotherapy markers - ways to predict a patient's response to an immunotherapy or to show whether a given treatment is working. The work is hampered by the complexity of the immune system, but early results are converging on one point: that patients' own immune responses to cancer are crucial in determining outcomes.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition in which components of the immune system mistakenly attack the fatty lining around nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The majority of drugs currently used to tackle the symptoms of MS, therefore, focus on preventing this destruction by targeting the immune system. But a team of scientists think they may have found a different approach to treatment: targeting stem cells already present in the patient's nervous system.

The activity of some of our genes varies with the seasons throughout the year. The discovery comes from an analysis of blood samples from more than 16,000 people in both hemispheres. The most striking pattern was that 147 genes involved in the immune system made it more reactive or "pro-inflammatory" during winter or rainy seasons, probably to battle the onslaught of cold and flu viruses