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Understanding Immunity through the Lens of Disease Ecology
1Departments of Molecular Biology and Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Abstract:
As we describe the immune system in ever more exquisite detail, we might find that no matter how successful, this approach will not be sufficient to understand the spread of infectious agents, their susceptibility to vaccine therapy, and human disease resistance. Compared with the strict reductionism practiced as a means of characterizing most biological processes, I propose that the progression and outcome of disease-causing host-parasite interactions will be more clearly understood through a focus on disease ecology.
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