Structure
Immune system
The cells, tissues and molecules that defend the body against infection.
Immunology
How the body recognizes and fights infection.
Immunology is the study of the immune system, the body's defense against germs.
Immunologists study fast innate defenses and the adaptive defenses of B and T cells, which learn and remember, and how vaccines train them.
Key topics include pattern recognition by Toll-like receptors, antigen presentation, antibody diversity from gene rearrangement, MHC restriction and immunotherapies.
Big questions
- How does the body tell friend from foe?
- How does immune memory work?
- How do vaccines protect us?
Key ideas
Open any idea in the knowledge graph to see what it connects to, here and in other fields.
Process
Innate immunity
The fast, built-in first line of defense. Toll-like receptors recognize features shared by many microbes.
Process
Adaptive immunity
Slower, highly specific defenses carried out by B and T cells, which remember infections they have met before.
Molecule
Antibody
A Y-shaped protein made by B cells that binds a specific target. Rearranging gene segments creates enormous antibody diversity.
Structure
T cells
White blood cells that recognize infected cells by the fragments of foreign proteins they display alongside MHC molecules.
Structure
Dendritic cells
A cell type identified in 1973 that captures antigens and presents them to T cells, linking innate and adaptive immunity.
Technology or method
Vaccination
Training the immune system with a harmless form or part of a pathogen. Smallpox eradication was certified in 1979 after a global eradication campaign.
Technology or method
mRNA vaccines
Vaccines that deliver mRNA instructions for a pathogen protein. Modified nucleosides help the mRNA avoid an unwanted immune alarm.
Technology or method
Monoclonal antibodies
Identical antibodies made by cultures descended from a single fused cell, used in research, diagnostics and medicine.
Technology or method
Cancer immunotherapy
Treatments that help the immune system attack cancer, such as checkpoint blockade and engineered CAR T cells.
Explore it in the labs
Interactive explorer
Compare bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses side by side, and model how a bacterial culture grows.
- Microbiology
- Evolution
- Immunology
Timeline and explorer
A sourced timeline from the double helix to CRISPR therapies, eight technologies labeled established or emerging, and a PCR model.
- Biotechnology
- Synthetic Biology
- Genetics
Current research
Search published papers and preprints in Immunology, with clear labels for reviews, primary research, clinical trials and preprints.
Search papers in ImmunologySources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Immunobiology: The Immune System in Health and Disease (5th edition) (opens the original in a new tab)
Janeway CA Jr, Travers P, Walport M, et al. (2001). Garland Science.
Free to read on NCBI Bookshelf.
TextbookEducationalAnatomy and Physiology 2e (opens the original in a new tab)
OpenStax (2022). OpenStax, Rice University.
TextbookEducationalLicence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (linked, not reused)
Vaccines and immunization: What is vaccination? (opens the original in a new tab)
World Health Organization. who.int. World Health Organization.
ReferenceIntergovernmental sourceEducationalThe dorsoventral regulatory gene cassette spätzle/Toll/cactus controls the potent antifungal response in Drosophila adults (opens the original in a new tab)
Lemaitre B, Nicolas E, Michaut L, et al. (1996). Cell 86:973-983.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchA human homologue of the Drosophila Toll protein signals activation of adaptive immunity (opens the original in a new tab)
Medzhitov R, Preston-Hurlburt P, Janeway CA Jr (1997). Nature 388:394-397.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchDefective LPS signaling in C3H/HeJ and C57BL/10ScCr mice: mutations in Tlr4 gene (opens the original in a new tab)
Poltorak A, He X, Smirnova I, et al. (1998). Science 282:2085-2088.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchAntibody (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalSomatic generation of antibody diversity (opens the original in a new tab)
Tonegawa S (1983). Nature 302:575-581.
Peer-reviewedReviewRestriction of in vitro T cell-mediated cytotoxicity in lymphocytic choriomeningitis within a syngeneic or semiallogeneic system (opens the original in a new tab)
Zinkernagel RM, Doherty PC (1974). Nature 248:701-702.
T cells recognize antigen only together with self MHC molecules.
Historical paperPrimary researchIdentification of a novel cell type in peripheral lymphoid organs of mice. I. Morphology, quantitation, tissue distribution (opens the original in a new tab)
Steinman RM, Cohn ZA (1973). Journal of Experimental Medicine 137:1142-1162.
The discovery of dendritic cells.
Historical paperPrimary researchSmallpox (opens the original in a new tab)
World Health Organization. who.int. World Health Organization.
ReferenceIntergovernmental sourceEducationalSuppression of RNA recognition by Toll-like receptors: the impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA (opens the original in a new tab)
Karikó K, Buckstein M, Ni H, et al. (2005). Immunity 23:165-175.
Modified nucleosides reduce innate immune recognition of synthetic mRNA.
Peer-reviewedPrimary research
Show 6 more sourcesHide 6 sources
Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine (opens the original in a new tab)
Polack FP, Thomas SJ, Kitchin N, et al. (2020). New England Journal of Medicine 383:2603-2615.
Peer-reviewedClinical trialEfficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (opens the original in a new tab)
Baden LR, El Sahly HM, Essink B, et al. (2021). New England Journal of Medicine 384:403-416.
Peer-reviewedClinical trialContinuous cultures of fused cells secreting antibody of predefined specificity (opens the original in a new tab)
Köhler G, Milstein C (1975). Nature 256:495-497.
The hybridoma method for monoclonal antibodies.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchEnhancement of antitumor immunity by CTLA-4 blockade (opens the original in a new tab)
Leach DR, Krummel MF, Allison JP (1996). Science 271:1734-1736.
Peer-reviewedPrimary researchChimeric antigen receptor therapy (opens the original in a new tab)
June CH, Sadelain M (2018). New England Journal of Medicine 379:64-73.
Peer-reviewedReviewTisagenlecleucel in children and young adults with B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (opens the original in a new tab)
Maude SL, Laetsch TW, Buechner J, et al. (2018). New England Journal of Medicine 378:439-448.
Peer-reviewedClinical trial