4. Antibodies in the Immune Response

About this Lecture

Lecture

In the fourth mini-lecture, we then discuss in more detail the role antibodies have in an immune response. Antibodies are soluble Y-shaped proteins that have a high affinity for a specific antigen, and in this lecture we talk about the different types of attraction that antibodies have at their disposal to bind strongly to antigens, such as van der Waals’ forces, H-bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Antibodies can vary their function to tackle different types of infection and here we learn about its polymerising capability. As well as this, we discuss opsonization, neutralisation and agglutination.

Course

In this lecture, Dr Matthew Ivory (Cardiff University) introduces the human immune system, and some of the tools the body has at its disposal to fight off infections. To begin, we: (i) discuss the passive barriers and innate immune system; before (ii) focusing on the adaptive immune system and how its response differs from the innate immune system; and then delving into T- and B-cells, specifically cytotoxic and helper T-cells, and antibodies and their associated B-cells; following onto (iv) antibodies more specifically and understanding how they have such specificity for an antigen and the different mechanisms they can use to fight pathogens; before finally (v) understanding how monoclonal antibodies have widespread use in medicine and in science, such as in diagnosis, cell signalling, radiolabelling, ELISA tests, and immunofluorescence.

Lecturer

Dr Matthew Ivory is a Lecturer at Cardiff University in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (2016-present). His key expertise is in ex vivo human skin organ culture and histology, human skin immune cell extraction and culture, flow cytometry and pharmaceutical formulation, and his research interests are in the delivery of vaccines and therapeutics into the skin. In addition to this, he is also a qualified pharmacist.