Date 27 February 2020
Pages 96
Format cm 12 x 18
Price € 8.00
EAN 9782271127112
Publisher Website www.cnrseditions.fr

Innate immunity

Publisher CNRS Éditions
COLLECTION Les grandes voix de la recherche
GENRE Essay - Reference
A lively book by a major biologist opens the door to immunology.

As with all vertebrates, adaptive immunity among humans develops when lymphocytes present in the blood have already been in contact with a pathogenic agent and learned to defend themselves from it. Jules Hoffmann worked with insects and noticed they never developed infections. He theorized the presence of an "innate" immuno-response whose existence was later identified in humans. Only then was the "missing link" in our account of the human immune mechanism discovered.