TY - BOOK ID - 218482 TI - Immunology, phenotype first : how mutations have new principles and pathways in immunology PY - 2008 SN - 1281491659 9786611491659 354075203X 3540752021 3642094457 PB - Berlin : Springer, DB - UniCat KW - Immunogenetics. KW - Genetics KW - Immunity KW - Immunology KW - Serology KW - Immunological aspects KW - Genetic aspects KW - Immunology. KW - Immunobiology KW - Life sciences UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:218482 AB - This monograph deals with the impact of classical genetics in immunology, providing examples of how large immunological questions were solved, and new fields opened to analysis through the study of phenotypes, either spontaneous or induced. As broad as biology has become, there are those who do not fully understand what the genetic approach is, and how it differs fundamentally from most of the methods available to natural scientists. They may hold the opinion that genetics has run its course since Mendel read his paper on peas in 1865. “Why bother with classical genetics,” they may ask. “Won’t all genes be knocked out soon anyway?” Or they are intimidated by genetics, with its heavy reliance on model organisms that seem so alien. “What has C. elegans to do with me?” the questioning might go. “It doesn’t even have lymphocytes. ” Such skeptics may be unaware that the mouse is fast becoming as tractable a model organism as the fly, and that humans may not be too far behind. So I would like to introduce the topic with a few words about the power of genetics, and why it has contributed so much to immunology, and to biology in general. Genetics, as the word is used here, is not merely the science of heredity, but much more than that. It is the science of exceptions: the science that takes note of heritable variation and seeks to explain it at the most fundamental level. ER -