About the lecture

In the first mini-lecture, we begin to look at how the body fights off disease by looking at the passive barriers that protect us. What do they look like? You may or not already be familiar with some of these barriers, such as the skin, but in addition to that we also discuss the barriers in the eyes, airways and gut that prevent infections from forming. We then introduce the innate immune system, define its main characteristics, distinguish it from the passive barriers that protect us, and then begin to describe some of its components.

About the 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.