Emilie,
I think fish are an excellent model to study human immunity. The homology among organisms if far reaching. I study the non-specific immune response in fish, as a comparative immunologist. Look at some journals like Developmental and Comparative Immunology and Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology (parts a, b, and c). You should quickly become convinced that many models are used to study immunity, and they are all finding similar responses as human. It is very difficult to do research on humans, while much more acceptable to experiment on fish, mice, etc.
Good luck. I hope you find immunology to be as rewarding as you hope.
Enjoy the project.
Nora Demers
Nora Egan Demers
Assistant Professor of Biology
Florida Gulf Coast University
Ft. Myers, FL 33965
(239) 590-7211 FAX (239) 590-7200
e-mail ndemers at fgcu.eduhttp://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/ndemers/demers.html
-----Original Message-----
From: emilie_papaulos at yahoo.com [mailto:emilie_papaulos at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:03 PM
To: immuno at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk
Subject: is fish immune system a good model for human immune system?
Dear newsgroup members,
I am an undergraduate student who is interested in imunology area. That's why I am taking a course about general immunology this semester. Next semester I have to go for a 3 month-internship. Since immunology now becoming my favorite subject, I would like to do my intership also in immunology. I have searched for projects and I found an interesting subject about fish immunology. Eventhough I like all kind of immunology, I am more interested to do something about human. My problem is so far I havent found any subjects concerning human immunology which can be done only in short period and the fish project seems can be done within that time.
I am in a doubt whether can go for the fish project or not. Is fish immune system similar to human in the term of protein involved in the pathway and other accessory molecules? If I am going to do my future thesis in human immunology, can the knowledge I get from fish system be applied for human system as well? Or should I concentrate directly in human immunology system? Please give me suggestions and advises. Thanks.
Greetings,
Emilie Papaulos.
http://biowww.net/mynews/tree.php?group_name=bionet_immunology&begin=0
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