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Article: Immunology
- Article from:
- World of Microbiology and Immunology
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Immunology
Immunology is the study of how the body responds to foreign substances and fights off infection and other disease. Immunologists study the molecules, cells, and organs of the human body that participate in this response.
The beginnings of our understanding of
immunity
date to 1798, when the English physician
Edward Jenner
(1749
–
1823) published a report that people could be protected from deadly
smallpox
by sticking them with a needle dipped in the material from a
cowpox
boil. The French biologist and chemist
Louis Pasteur
(1822
–
1895) theorized that such
immunization
protects people against disease by exposing them to a version of a microbe that is ...