Learn about this complex coordination of organs from immunology expert, Katherine Gundling, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Allergy and Immunology at UCSF, and Practice Chief of the Allergy/Immunology clinic at Moffitt Hospital.
She explains that our immune system is responsible for combating external threats, like viruses or physical injuries, and internal threats, such as cancer. But, before our immune system can protect us from these threats, it must regulate functions within the body to determine whether such entrants and occurrences are friend or foe.
Sometimes our immune systems make mistakes and react negatively to things that aren’t really so harmful, such as cat dander, causing allergies. But more severe dysfunctions of the immune system, like a primary immune disorder, can have more devastating effects. Watch “Immunology 101: The Basics and Introduction to our Patient” to meet Elizabeth, a patient with a primary immune disorder, and see how this disorder can teach us about the way a healthy immune system functions.