Immune System

Vaccine

Feb 11, 2021

By Taylor Tibbs Vaccine  (noun, /vak-SEEN/)  What does it mean?  A vaccine is a biological product used to protect or immunize against a certain disease. When vaccines are given, they stimulate the immune system to develop a protective response against the causative agent of a disease or pathogen (such as a virus). Vaccines can be […]

Science Word Wednesday: Antibody

Sep 09, 2020

By Taylor Tibbs Antibody What does it mean?  Antibodies are proteins produced by immune cells to target foreign elements or pathogens like viruses, bacteria, and fungi, to ultimately eliminate them from the body.The body produces many unique antibodies specific to things that can make you sick. Antibodies can neutralize toxins directly or act like flags […]

The T Lymphocyte

Jul 07, 2020

By Alan Curtis As humans, we are constantly interacting with our environments: we sit on the couch, we ride in cars, we go for walks, we swim in rivers, lakes, and oceans, we (used to) get on planes.  The number of ways we experience and manipulate our environment leaves us susceptible to injury and disease […]

Could Llamas Cure COVID-19?

Jun 16, 2020

  By Emma Goldberg Scientists around the world are racing to find a cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, that has become a global pandemic.  Researchers in the US and Belgium may have discovered the key to a cure: a furry, goofy, lovable llama! Meet Winter: a 4-year old, chocolate brown […]

Antibody – Not Just a Media Buzzword

Jun 11, 2020

By Alan Curtis The human immune system has two main branches: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. The innate immune system includes simple external defenses such as skin and tears and more complex internal defenses like patrol cells, called neutrophils, that look for anything that might be out of place. The adaptive branch is considered […]

Electronic Cigarettes Affect Our Cardiovascular System

May 14, 2020

By Eva Vitucci The electronic-cigarette (e-cig) comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, and many different flavoring options. While vaping and e-cig use were initially brought into the market as a safer alternative to cigarettes, new studies suggest otherwise. As 27.5% of high school youth continue to vape, an increase in lung disease and […]

Poison Ivy

Apr 28, 2020

By Alan Curtis Hiking can be a fun and rewarding form of exercise but it comes with plenty of dangers ranging from blistered feet to wild animals. One of the most common dangers, however, is a seemingly harmless plant called Toxicodendron radicans, or more commonly, poison ivy. Poison ivy is a hardy, flowering summer plant […]

Tis the season for…Pollen

Apr 07, 2020

By Alan Curtis Ah, Spring- a season of renewal, growth and beautiful colors! Flowering plants and trees use pollen to reproduce. Pollen is produced by male parts of the flower and spread through the air and peaks in the spring months.  For some North Carolinians, pollen makes spring a time of intense allergies. Puffy eyes, […]

Meet Edward Jenner

Apr 02, 2020

By Jenna Beam Meet Edward Jenner, a physician from way back in the early 1800’s. Why do we care about another old English man, you ask? Because Edward Jenner is the man responsible for one of the most important medical discoveries ever made: vaccines.  As a baby through early childhood, and even sometimes as an […]

What the heck is the spleen?

Feb 21, 2020

By Jenna Beam Let’s level with each other – everyone has a spleen, everyone knows that everyone has a spleen, but does anyone know what the spleen is for?  Until a few years ago, I had no idea what the spleen was for. Was it like the appendix – a vestigial structure, leftover from millenia […]

Do we really have the cure for HIV?

Dec 13, 2019

By Christian Agosto-Burgos The Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) emerged around 1920 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, probably as the result of human consumption of raw or undercooked chimpanzee’s meat contaminated with the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). If untreated, HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV did not become a global issue until […]

Les Measle-ables

Dec 05, 2019

By Jenna Beam  If you’ve been alive at any point since 1998, chances are you’ve heard about the anti-vax movement. As a part of this movement, parents refuse to vaccinate their children. This movement was started on the back of a “study” (it was a scam) that falsely claimed a link between vaccines and autism […]

CAR T-cell therapy

Nov 14, 2019

By Devina Thiono In 2019, around 1.8 million new cancer cases are expected in the U.S. 12,000 out of this number are children aged 1-14, with leukemia accounting for a third of children cancer cases. Leukemia is a cancer that affects the blood. The main targets of leukemia are white blood cells, whose job is […]

Vaping: An Attack on Your Immune System

Nov 08, 2019

By Carolina Herrera Vaping is safer than smoking tobacco you say? Tobacco smoking in the U.S. has decreased, however due to this decline, tobacco companies have promoted electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) as safer alternatives to tobacco cigarettes. E-cigs are battery-operated devices that produce aerosols by heating up nicotine, flavorings and other components. However, what people don’t […]

Herd Immunity

Apr 18, 2019

By Tim Daugird What if I told you that if enough people got a flu shot, we could all eliminate influenza outbreaks? You may think, “Duh, if everyone got a flu shot, then no one would get the flu”. Although you would be correct, we can probably all agree that the idea of everyone getting […]

Autoimmunity: How T cells go wrong

Apr 04, 2019

By Christian Agosto-Burgos Every single day we are all exposed to thousands of nasty and tiny pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi that could harm us. Thankfully, we all have an immune system that protects us from the harm these microorganisms could induce. Sometimes the immune system of certain individuals becomes confused and cannot […]

Chlamydia is Sneaky

Mar 09, 2018 http://www.clker.com/clipart-consulting-detective-with-pipe-and-magnifying-glass-silhouette-.html

By Clare Gyorke I’m sure many of you remember the movie, “Mean Girls“ and have heard Coach Carr’s famous caution that “if you touch each other, you will get chlamydia, and die.” As it turns out, he was sadly misinformed. Though it cannot kill you, Chlamydia trachomatis is actually the most common bacterial sexually transmitted […]

The Flu and You

Feb 08, 2018 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enveloped_icosahedral_virus.svg

By Christina Marvin If you have not come down with the flu yourself, you most likely have had a friend or family member who has. It rears its ugly head each year, infecting those it comes in contact with and discriminating against no one. If you’ve been following this blog, you may have read about […]

Wet Hair, Colds, and the Truth About Viruses

Dec 21, 2017 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Phage.jpg

By Michelle Engle As kids, we are often told, “don’t go outside with wet hair, you will catch a cold!” Is there any truth to this old saying, or is it just a persistent myth? Knowing the difference between myths and scientific facts is important for making educated decisions. But what’s even more important is […]

Why the Flu Shot Rocks

Nov 30, 2017 https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/immunity/immune-detail.html

By Clare Gyorke When I say the flu sucks, I’m not talking about the cold you get every year – you feel crappy for a day or two, but not so crappy that you can’t watch Netflix. I’m talking about the one that starts out feeling like a cold, but progresses to feeling so bad […]

Can we teach our body to recognize cancer?

Mar 02, 2017 https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5519/11857240186_a24d969536_b.jpg

By Christina Marvin Immunotherapy is an entirely new way of thinking about cancer treatment. Traditional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation aim to target and destroy tumors. Often times, tumor targeting is poor or the treatments damage other parts of the body. Immunotherapy, on the other hand, teaches our body’s natural defenses (the immune […]