IMSE

• Immunology can be defined as the study of a host's reactions when foreign substances are introduced into the body. Such foreign substances that induce a host response are called antigens
• Variolation


  The process of preventing smallpox infection by inhaling powder made from smallpox scabs
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared smallpox and rinderpest officially eradicated
• Varicella-zoster virus (VZV)


  The virus causing chickenpox, a milder version of smallpox
• Edward Jenner


  The first one to develop the first ever vaccine in the world, the smallpox vaccination
• Jenner hypothesized that milkmaids never acquired smallpox due to their exposure to cows and cowpox
• Vaccinia virus


  The scientific term for the cowpox virus
• Cross Immunity


  The principle behind Jenner's discovery of the smallpox vaccine, where exposure to a certain virus or a certain related virus can offer protection to a related virus
• The term "vaccine" came from the word "vacca" which means cow
• Louis Pasteur


  The Father of Immunology, successful in making different vaccines against chicken cholera, anthrax, and rabies
• Pasteur's development of the rabies vaccine

  Getting a dog's spinal cord, drying other spinal cords of dogs, and making a series of 12 injections to a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog
• Pasteur produced the rabies vaccine through a mistake or error in one of his experiments
• Attenuation


  The process of making a pathogen less virulent through heat, aging, or chemical means
• Attenuation remains the basis for many of the immunizations that are used today
• Pathogenicity


  The ability of a microbe to cause infection
• Immunogenicity


  The ability of a microbe to stimulate antibody production or immune response

  
• Haeckel was the first one to study phagocytosis, observing white blood cells digesting dye particles

  
• Elie Metchnikoff


  The Champion of Cellular Immunity, Nobel Prize Awardee who elucidated the steps of phagocytosis

  
• Phagocytosis


  The process of cell eating, meaning cells that eat cells
• Emil von Behring & Kitasato

  The Champions of Humoral Immunity, Nobel Prize Awardees who discovered the anti-tetanus antitoxin and anti-diphtheria antitoxin
• Humor


  A body fluid (e.g. aqueous humor and vitreous humor)
• Antibodies are present in body fluids
• Robert Koch


  Demonstrated cutaneous hypersensitivity, discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Koch's Bacillus)
• Koch's attempt to make a vaccine against tuberculosis by using attenuated vaccine resulted in the death of his test animals instead of protection
• In response to infection with tuberculosis, a cutaneous type of hypersensitivity is mounted
• Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin


  Discovered the first successful vaccine against tuberculosis, Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG)

  
• Gruber and Durham


  Discovered the agglutination reactions
• Agglutination reactions


  One of the most common serologic tests used in screening many diseases

  
• Ferdinand Widal


  Devised an agglutination reaction for the diagnosis of typhoid fever, the Widal Test

  
• Paul Ehrlich


  Developed the antibody formation theory

  
• Karl Landsteiner


  Discovered the ABO Blood Group, without which there would be no successful blood transfusion today
• Blood typing is basically an agglutination reaction
• Paul Portier and Charles Richet

  Discovered anaphylaxis, the most severe form of allergy that can cause death
• Almoth Wright, Stephen Douglas, Joseph Denys


  Nobel Prize Awardees who discovered opsonins and described their relation to phagocytosis
• Opsonins


  Substances that coat microbes to make them more prone to phagocytosis
• Von Pirquet and Schick


  Described the relationship of immunity and hypersensitivity
• Pfeiffer and Buchner


  Discovered complement-mediated cytolysis
• Jules Bordet


  Nobel Prize Awardee, pioneered works on complement, the principal soluble mediator of inflammation
• Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin

  Discovered the polio vaccine

  
• George Snell


  Worked out the genetics of the murine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and generated the congenic strains needed for its biologic analysis