Colloqui
Classe di Scienze
ore 15.00
Scuola Normale
Superiore
Pisa
(Sala
Stemmi)
Michael
Neuberger
MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Terrà un
seminario dal titolo:
“The
Generation of Diversity in the Immune System”
Abstract:
Microbial infection has traditionally provided one of the greatest
threats to human survival. The immune system exists in order to combat
such infection, but micro-organisms themselves mutate and evolve to bypass
immunity. In order therefore to provide as broad a protection as possible,
the immune system must generate an enormous diversity of weaponry (antibodies)
to combat the vast array of micro-organisms. Recent work has revealed that
the immune system contains a specific mutator protein whose job is to
mutate the antibody genes themselves, allowing the generation of a vast array
(> 1 billion) of antibodies from only a small number of antibody genes.
This targeted mutation also allows the antibodies themselves to change
during the course of an infection, so that they adjust to the evolving pathogen.
I will review what we have recently learned about how about how antibody
diversity is generated through targeted mutation of DNA and consider how such
information can be useful in medicine and
biotechnology.
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Classe di
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