What is the feature that distinguishes us from each other, that makes up unique? Most would immediately think of obvious external characteristics like hair or eye colour, but as Professor Daniel Davis explained in a recent lecture I attended, it is actually our immune genes.
Taking us on a whirlwind tour of immunology history, Davis set off by describing the discovery of immune tolerance in 1951 by Medawar and colleagues, who were at the time trying to understand why transplants are rejected. We now know that transplants are rejected because they are recognised as foreign, or 'non-self', by our immune system, and what instructs this recognition are a set of genes known as histocompatibility genes.
The collective work of numerous scientists in the past 60 years has uncovered the shear diversity of histocompatibility genes in the population, how this diversity is integral to our susceptibility to diseases, and the checks and balances present to ensure that this recognition system is working correctly.
But the effects of histocompatibility genes go beyond immunity: more recent work has uncovered fascinating roles for these genes in sexual attraction, with a study finding that women are more likely to be attracted to men with histocompatibility genes that are different from theirs, and even in pregnancy.
The lecture, organised by my old friends at Nature Reviews Immunology, was part of the international Day of Immunology, which first took place on April 29th 2005. Its aim is to celebrate this exciting discipline and raise awareness of its applications, in particular with regard to wellness, to the lay public.
And this is sadly not an easy feat - as Davis noted, there is a dearth of popular science books or TV programmes on immunology, despite it being a subject that has the potential to be of interest to scientists and lay public alike. There is of course a lot of jargon, like any specialist field, and numerous basic concepts that are necessary to understand any new ideas, which has resulted in this crazy idea that immunology is a scary, complicated subject, even among other scientists. Davis urges all immunologists to take steps to become involved and present this exciting discipline to the public (see his Comment piece on Nature Reviews Immunology, which is free for registered users).
His recent book, The Compatibility Gene, will hopefully spur others to explore this field and write more broadly about it. I can't wait to read it!
Taking us on a whirlwind tour of immunology history, Davis set off by describing the discovery of immune tolerance in 1951 by Medawar and colleagues, who were at the time trying to understand why transplants are rejected. We now know that transplants are rejected because they are recognised as foreign, or 'non-self', by our immune system, and what instructs this recognition are a set of genes known as histocompatibility genes.
The collective work of numerous scientists in the past 60 years has uncovered the shear diversity of histocompatibility genes in the population, how this diversity is integral to our susceptibility to diseases, and the checks and balances present to ensure that this recognition system is working correctly.
But the effects of histocompatibility genes go beyond immunity: more recent work has uncovered fascinating roles for these genes in sexual attraction, with a study finding that women are more likely to be attracted to men with histocompatibility genes that are different from theirs, and even in pregnancy.
The lecture, organised by my old friends at Nature Reviews Immunology, was part of the international Day of Immunology, which first took place on April 29th 2005. Its aim is to celebrate this exciting discipline and raise awareness of its applications, in particular with regard to wellness, to the lay public.
And this is sadly not an easy feat - as Davis noted, there is a dearth of popular science books or TV programmes on immunology, despite it being a subject that has the potential to be of interest to scientists and lay public alike. There is of course a lot of jargon, like any specialist field, and numerous basic concepts that are necessary to understand any new ideas, which has resulted in this crazy idea that immunology is a scary, complicated subject, even among other scientists. Davis urges all immunologists to take steps to become involved and present this exciting discipline to the public (see his Comment piece on Nature Reviews Immunology, which is free for registered users).
His recent book, The Compatibility Gene, will hopefully spur others to explore this field and write more broadly about it. I can't wait to read it!
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