The cornerstone of our adaptive immune system is the ability to remember the various infections we have encountered. Quite literally, if it doesn’t kill you, it makes your immune system stronger.
Flea, the bass player with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome.
Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock
Tonsil tissue is particularly important in the first six months of life. After this, our lymph glands take over most of the work and the tonsils are essentially out of a job.
By the time they turn one, half of Australian babies have had a course of antibiotics.
Shutterstock
There may be additional long-term health harms from antibiotic exposure in early life and before birth, including an increased risk of infection, obesity and asthma.
A microscopy image of Aspergillus fumigatus fungus, one of the biggest killers of patients with weak immune systems.
Mark Stappers/Kevin Mackenzie
Fungi perform a vital role in the biological cycle, but pose an increasing danger to human health – invasive fungal infections kill three times more people than malaria.
The immune system has to establish which cells belong to us and which are foreign, no mean feat.
www.shutterstock.com
All multiple sclerosis sufferers have stem cells with the potential to heal them, but scientists are only just figuring out how to kick them into action.
Childhood adversity doesn't just affect our choices – according to new research, it also weakens the body's fundamental ability to stay healthy in old age.
A flu patient at ProMedica Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio on Jan. 8, 2018.
AP Photo/Tony Dejak
Anyone who's had the flu can attest that it makes them feel horrible. But why? What is going on inside the body that brings such pain and malaise? An immunologist explains.
Stress has subtle, underlying effects on almost every part of the body, including the heart, gut and immune system.
Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight. Scientists believe flight may influence their immune responses to coronoviruses, which cause fatal diseases such as SARS and MERS in humans.
(Shutterstock)
Scientific studies show that bats may carry "coronoviruses" causing SARS and MERS - without showing symptoms of disease. Could the bat immune system be key to human survival in future pandemics?
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Director, Children’s Health and Environment Program and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Children’s Health and Environment, The University of Queensland