The innate immune system and specifically the complement cascade are involved in protection against pathogens and can be hijacked by Neisseria meningitidis.

“There's a protein involved in this. It's called the compl complement cascade and there are three different pathways. So in one of these pathways there's a protein involved uh in actually protecting or or being used as a protective shield by our own cells”

Oral immunotherapy is an effective way to retrain the immune system to tolerate food allergens and prevent dangerous allergic reactions.

“what I love about the immune system is it can be trained and you just need to know how to train it and you can train it away from becoming allergic and and train it into becoming more protective”

Total avoidance of microbes is impossible and unhealthy, as the human body naturally coexists with a wide array of microbial life.

“There's no reason to aim for something like zero microbial exposure because that's completely preposterous.”

The immune system is a highly complex, tunable sensory network that measures biomolecules to maintain self-regulation rather than just functioning as a binary system for detecting foreign threats.

“it's kind of guarding yourself. It's uh you know, it sits in your liver regulating how how much you metabolize. There's a collection of cells there. Um it's in your heart. It's you know, regulating cardiomyocyte function.”

The immune system is highly sophisticated and its responses can be therapeutically leveraged and reprogrammed to treat diseases like cancer and autoimmunity.

“Medicine is programming the behavior of cells in a way that's much more directed than was ever conceivable before. Like there's really a step function in what's imaginable and achievable in medicine.”

Chronic inflammation resulting from the aging process acts in a feedback loop that further accelerates the degradation of the immune system.

“the whole idea of chronic inflammation which is induced by the aging process but which itself actually further accelerates aging.”

Monoclonal antibodies are a promising and effective strategy for preventing and treating COVID-19 infection.

“to me this is the most exciting aspect and the most hopeful treatment for coronavirus and it's a new type of vaccinology if you will and it's I think the way forward for the vaccine field”

Monoclonal antibody treatments are essential for treating high-risk patients who do not respond to vaccines and can also provide passive immunity to immunocompromised individuals.

“we can give them the monoclonal and antibody treatment because what that does is it's like loading them up literally with a thousand times more antibodies than you would make in response to a vaccine and it helps you beat and control the virus”