Nobelprize.org’s Educational Production Focuses on the Body’s Immune System

Nobelprize.org’s Educational Production Focuses on the Body’s Immune System

Nobelprize.org, the official web site of the Nobel Prize, announces the launch of Immune Responses, a new educational multimedia production for high school students and educators. With the aim to explain how the body’s immune system functions, the production highlights many of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine which have been awarded for discoveries within the field of immunology.

Immune Responses, the second production within the AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative, illustrates the immune system’s unique task to recognize, defend and dispose of foreign substances and to remember them. With the help of vivid animations, interactive experiments and images, the production takes a closer look at the field of immunology and how our immune system distinguishes and protects us from harmful foreign organisms. What happens if we get a bacterial infection and what white blood cells do to protect us, are some of the many questions that are addressed. At times, our immune system can turn on the body and can harm us and this is also explored. How we gain immunity is also explained in the production.

Included is an introductory overview article that delves into more detail about each Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine which helped to reveal secrets behind the complex biological systems that protect us against disease.

"Without an immune system we would not survive for very long. Immune Responses features some of the reactions that protect us against the daily threat from foreign agents and infectious diseases. We hope to increase awareness and knowledge about immune responses and to inspire the next generation of scientists through illuminating Nobel Prize awarded achievements”, said Agneta Wallin Levinovitz, Executive Editor, Nobel Web.

To discover and explore Immune Responses, visit: http://nobelprize.org/immuneresponses

For a 1-minute informational video about Immune Responses, see:

http://nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1354

AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative

Immune Responses is part of the AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative, a global co-operation between AstraZeneca, Nobel Media AB and Nobel Web AB. The aim of the Initiative is to increase understanding of the Nobel Prize awarded achievements within the fields of Physiology or Medicine among the general public, and to explain the benefits of these discoveries.

To read more about the AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative, see: http://nobelprize.org/press/nobelweb/press_releases/2008/astrazeneca.html

For other productions within the AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative, see:

http://nobelprize.org/nervesignaling

Media Contact Nobel Web AB

Merci Olsson
Marketing and Communications Manager

Tel: +(46) 738 52 35 95
E-mail: merci.olsson@nobel.se