A Hunter-killer stalks its prey in your bloodstream.
posted by orthogonality on Oct 5, 2008 - 30 comments

Demi-Lee Brennan received a liver transplant at the age of nine. Her doctors were rather surprised when her body subsequently took on the immune system of the organ donor and her blood type changed from O-negative to O-positive.
posted by the duck by the oboe on Jan 25, 2008 - 35 comments

Have You Eaten Your Dirt Today, Honey? A New Approach To The Hygiene Hypothesis. The hypothesis argues: The reason why there is so much asthma, eczema, allergies and maybe even childhood diabetes in the modern world is because we — well infants really — live in too clean a universe. What our baby immune systems need is a kickstart by exposure to viruses, bacteria, worms, pollutants and so on. If you don’t get an infant hit from these icons of uncleanliness, the immune system goes haywire and your body over-reacts to all sorts of invasive things that normally could be ignored. Via. [more inside]
posted by amyms on Nov 6, 2007 - 97 comments

Crocodile Immune System Kills HIV
Because crocodiles fight amonst themselves and get seriously wounded from time to time they developed incredibly strong immune systems and natural antibiotics. So strong that they, well, let's hear from one of the scientists.... "The crocodile has an immune system which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes. It's like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger," said Australian scientist Adam Britton.
Sounds like good news to me.
posted by fenriq on Aug 16, 2005 - 45 comments