In order for the B cells of the immune system to identify and fight disease pathogens, they produce a protein called activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Once a B cell is activated by the presence of a disease pathogen, it begins to make AID which directs and strengthens the B cells’ response to the infection by mutating the antibodies produced by the B cells.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they have mapped out an escape route that cancers use to evade the body’s immune system, allowing the disease to spread unchecked.

To protect us from disease our immune system employs macrophages, cells that roam our body in search of disease-causing bacteria. With the help of long tentacle-like protrusions, macrophages can catch suspicious particles, pull them towards their cell bodies, internalise and destroy them.

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered why some mosquitoes are resistant to malaria, a finding that may one day help fight a disease that afflicts and kills millions of people.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have published new research today (5 July) in the journal Development showing an unexpected link between a fundamental part of the immune system and the cells that produce milk in the breast during lactation.

One of the fundamental traits of a tumor – how it avoids the immune system – might become its greatest vulnerability, according to researchers from the University of Southern California.

How can we induce the body to use its own weapon, the immune system, to battle cancer? In principle, by the same means used against infectious diseases: immunization. The production of a selective vaccine is not a trivial task, however. A team led by Horst Kunst at the University of Mainz has now found a way to bind a molecule that is typical for tumors to a carrier protein without irritating the immune system.

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center have discovered a novel anti-inflammatory cell signaling pathway that may serve as a vital Yin-Yang mechanism to maintain the delicate balance of immune response.

Effector proteins are the bad guys that help bacterial pathogens do their job of infecting the host by crippling the body's immune system. In essence, they knock down the front door of resistance and disarm the cell's alarm system.

Scientists supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) at the National Institutes of Health have created two mouse strains that will permit researchers to trace, in a live animal, the activity of an enzyme believed to play a crucial role both in the normal immune response as well as autoimmunity and B cell tumor development. Their report appears in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Rheumatology researchers have discovered that a well-known cell receptor sends a signal to dampen the immune system.

"My baby is doing what other babies her age are doing -- she's feeding herself, putting on her own clothes and she loves to dance." Lolita Harding is describing her daughter Dave'yana, who will turn three in September, thanks in large part to a thymus transplant she received at Duke University Medical Center in April 2005 to reconstitute her absent immune system.