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Hank tells us about the team of deadly ninja assassins that is tasked with protecting our bodies from all the bad guys that want to kill us - also known as our immune system.

Components of the immune system called antibodies are found in the liquid portion of blood and help protect the body from harm. Antibodies can also be used outside the body in a laboratory-based assay to help diagnose disease caused by malfunctions of the immune system or by infections.

When you get sick, your immune system comes to the rescue. Find out more in this movie for kids.

Artificially boosting the body's immune response against cancer is the most exciting advance in the treatment of tumors in the past couple of years. But as the jam-packed sessions at a recent scientific conference in New York City made clear, a lot of questions remain to be answered before anyone can declare victory in the war on cancer. Among them: What is the best way to kick the immune system into action? Will immunotherapy work for all sorts of people with all kinds of cancer or just for a lucky few? Is there a way to make the treatments less dangerous or expensive?

Lessons on the immune systems and disease. Print and go!

4:16 HD animation video

Immune cell maturation details

Some of the anti-glutenists argue that we haven't eaten wheat for long enough to adapt to it as a species. Agriculture began just 12,000 years ago, not enough time for our bodies, which evolved over millions of years, primarily in Africa, to adjust. According to this theory, we're intrinsically hunter-gatherers, not bread-eaters. If exposed to gluten, some of us will develop celiac disease or gluten intolerance, or we'll simply feel lousy. Most of these assertions, however, are contradicted by significant evidence, and distract us from our actual problem: an immune system that has become overly sensitive.

TED-Ed with supporting lesson materials through cpalms.org resource site.  Text links include cell cycle, immune system response to cancer, and Laron's syndrome dwarfism which has low incidences of cancer and diabetes.

bozeman biology

The rise of immunotherapy has been one of the most startling and promising developments in cancer research for some time. After decades of false starts and dead ends, scientists have finally found effective ways of marshaling the immune system to destroy cancers.

A genetic "crystal ball" can predict whether certain people will respond effectively to the flu vaccine. Nine genes are associated with a strong immune response to the flu vaccine in those aged 35 and under, a new study finds. If these genes were highly active before vaccination, an individual would generate a high level of antibodies after vaccination, no matter the flu strain in the vaccine, researchers report online August 25 in Science Immunology. This response can help a person avoid getting the flu.

Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease -- unlike any other known organism -- can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria substitute manganese to make an essential enzyme, thus eluding immune system defenses that protect the body by starving pathogens of iron.

This is the updated Amoeba Sisters human organ systems video, which provides a brief introduction to each of the 11 human organ systems including the circulatory, digestive, endocrine, excretory, integumentary, lymphatic/immune, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, and skeletal systems.

It starts with a tickle in your throat that becomes a cough. Your muscles begin to ache, you grow irritable, and you lose your appetite. It's official: you've got the flu. It's logical to assume that this miserable medley of symptoms is the result of the infection coursing through your body - but is that really the case? Marco A. Sotomayor explains what's actually making you feel sick.

But scientists from the University of Southern California showed that, in mice, the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) significantly lowered the percentage of damaging immune cells, while allowing the protective coating to regrow.

Researchers have designed a nanoparticle-based therapy that is effective in treating mice with multiple myeloma, a cancer of immune cells in the bone marrow.

Many biology courses are designed to develop student understanding and application of the scientific method, but few seriously examine the various ethical questions associated with scientific research. This interdisciplinary case study presents three experiments and asks not only if they are scientifically valid but whether they were ethically performed.  The experiments examine the psychology of love, a cause of breast cancer, and how the immune system functions in the presence of cancer. Based on their opinions of the validity and ethics of each experiment, students are asked to conclude which of the experiments were actually conducted by scientists and which are fictional. Students should already be familiar with the scientific method, but information on the Georgetown Mantra and Nuremberg Code.is included. The case could be modified for use in non-majors and majors classes.  The format of the case challenges students of any background to use information from both science and ethics to see how the differing approaches of scientist and ethicist can complement and strengthen each other.

New immune system-boosting cancer drugs have in clinical trials saved the lives of many people with seemingly untreatable melanoma or lung cancer, but the drugs seem useless against colon cancer. One exception-a man with colon cancer whose metastatic tumors vanished for several years after he was treated in 2007-piqued researchers' interest. They suspected his recovery might have to do with the large number of mutations in his tumors. Now, a small clinical trial suggests that even cancer patients with types of tumors that were thought to be impervious to the new drugs could benefit if those malignancies have the right error-riddled DNA signature, a result that could help 3% to 4% of cancer patients.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania performed "stress tests" on pregnant mice using a predator's odor, restraint, or unfamiliar noises. After the mice gave birth, the scientists analyzed the bacterial communities in their vaginas and in their pups' colons. The researchers found that stress during pregnancy altered the expression levels of several proteins involved in vaginal immunity and the frequency of Lactobacillus bacteria, which, expectedly, correlated to lower frequencies of Lactobacillus within their pups' gut microbiomes. Male pups of stressed mothers also displayed an increase in anaerobic bacteria like Clostridium and Bacteroidesin.