• Question: What are the two groups of the defense mechanisms of the body against foreign or harmful agents? What is the difference between them?

    Asked by Nico ;-) to Sian, Max, Lizzie, Francis, Ben on 10 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by Nora900.
    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 10 Mar 2018:

      Hi Nico, we have two types of immunity – innate and adaptive. Our innate immunity is what we are born with and consists of white blood cells that fight foreign agents. Some of our white blood cells, including B and T cells are able to remember viruses they have fought and our body is primed to be ready to fight the virus is we encounter it again. This is called adaptive immunity. We can harness our adaptive immune system with things like vaccinations.

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 12 Mar 2018:

      I am a doctor and I work in hospitals, but for the past 4 years I have been doing a PhD in a lab, full time. This means I have been working with patient blood samples and trying to find out more about them, using different methods. One of the methods which we use to study the immune system is a machine called the flow cytometer which looks at each cell individually!

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