Author Description

An understanding of the immune system is central to the understanding of how the body interacts with its surroundings, and how it both protects itself and responds to infectious disease. But what processes underpin the body's response to infection? How does our immune system remember its previous encounters? And what happens when the tight regulation of the immune system fails? Immunity: The Immune Response in Infectious and Inflammatory Disease presents an engaging insight into one of the most intricate yet conceptually challenging biological systems. With a unique emphasis on the immune response to infection, it presents the immune system as a dynamic interface with the outside world. Building up a complete picture of the subject, the book leads the student through both innate and adaptive immunity, how infection is detected, and how the cells of the immune system interact to generate a response, before examining the immune response to bacterial, viral, and fungal and parasitic infections. Finally, the book explores the relationship between the regulation of the immune response and immunological diseases - how the immune system is controlled, and the implications for our health when this control is lost - and immune memory and the development of vaccines. Immunity combines articulate prose with striking full colour illustrations, while the unique Primers in Biology modular structure integrates text, illustrations, definitions, and literature references for each topic into one double-page spread, bringing to the student's fingertips all the tools that they need to master that topic. The immune system is one of the most challenging yet rewarding biological systems to comprehend; Immunity: The Immune Response in Infectious and Inflammatory Disease is the ideal resource for any student wishing to develop a sound grasp of this fascinating subject. Online Resource Centre The Online Resource Centre features: For lecturers Figures from the book available to download, to facilitate lecture preparation For students Interactive self-assessment questions for each section of the book.