New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Immune system

The immune system is the system of specialized cells and organs that protect an organism from outside biological influences. (Though in a broad sense, almost every organ has a protective function - for example, the tight seal of the skin or the acidic environment of the stomach.) When the immune system is functioning properly, it protects the body against bacteria and viral infections, destroying cancer cells and foreign substances.

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Immune system", which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Related Stories
 


Health & Medicine News

February 27, 2025

A comprehensive encyclopedia of the known functions of all protein-coding human genes has just been completed and released. Researchers used large-scale evolutionary modeling to integrate data on human genes with genetic data collected from other ...
A bone marrow transplant process is safe and curative for adults with sickle cell disease, according to results of a trial completed at about 20 cancer ...
A new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health has shown that a range of environmental factors, including lifestyle (smoking and physical activity), and living conditions, have a ...
A biohybrid hand which can move objects and do a scissor gesture has been created. The researchers used thin strings of lab-grown muscle tissue bundled into sushilike rolls to give the fingers enough strength to contract. These multiple muscle ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:56 pm ET