Innate immune responses permit strong resistance to infection during the hours and days that follow inoculation of microbes. The innate immune system is """"""""hard wired"""""""" in the sense that it depends upon germline-encoded receptors to recognize microbes, and signal transduction pathways to elicit the genetic and biochemical responses that restrict infection. Within our species, inter-individual differences in susceptibility to infection likely reflect differences in innate immune performance, based on differences in genetic mal When an infection occurs, the innate immune system normally contains it long enough for antibodies and T cells to deal with it definitively. Sometimes innate immunity may even sterilize an infection completely. Hundreds of genes encode proteins that make up our innate immune system, and in identifying all essential components of this system, we may hope to understand what occasionally goes wrong with it: why some people are more prone to infection than others. We may also be able to fashion more effective vaccines. This project is dedicated to the identification of new components of the innate immune system.Public Health Relevance
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