In article <85t5qm$7o3$1 at news.netvision.net.il>,
Delilah (Ayelet D. Sheffy) <dvora_16 at netvision.net.il> wrote:
>i am very interested in biology, especially in immunology but the thing that
>concern me about it is the experiments on animals.
>i don't want to get into this thing, but i just wanted to know if there's a
>way i can study and succeed in biology without doing or even watching these
>experiments...
>can you answer me?
Biology certainly has areas that require no animal research - plant
biology, structural biology, yeast biology (very useful for understanding
regulation of cell metabolism, the processes of cell division, etc.) - as
well as areas (particularly developmental biology) that use simple
animals, such as Drosophila (fruit flies) and C. elegans (roundworms),
that most people don't find so offensive.
Immunology is a bit trickier, though, since at some level it must be
integrated back into the immune *system*, and that generally means
animals. As mentioned, structural biology of immunologically
important molecules is one way to go - Ian Wilson and Don Wiley have
made careers there. There are also a few labs studying immune responses
in Drosphila (Kathryn Anderson at Sloan-Kettering is one), and even plant
immunology (Jeff Dangl at UNC Chapel Hill) - the genetic pathways are
strikingly similar to those in mammals, paticularly in the more
"primitive" innate immune response.
I hope that helps,
Ken Frauwirth
--
Ken Frauwirth (MiSTie #33025) kfrauwir at midway.uchicago.edu
Abramson Cancer Research Institute
University of Pennsylvania
http://mail.med.upenn.edu/~kfrauwir
