Re: What does someone who studies Immunology do?

Your question is a very good one. Immunology is basically the study of the immune system, a complex system of cells and molecules in the body that work together to fight infection. Some people who study immunology do clinical work. This means that they are medical doctors working with patients who for some reason or another have something wrong with their immune system. Some people are born with defective immune systems, and so need to be treated by doctors who are specialists in this field. Other people, for example those with HIV, have defective immune systems caused by a virus they have acquired. Because of their defective immune systems they can easily become infected with bacteria, fungi, or viruses that normally wouldn't hurt healthy people. Immunologists can treat these people to prevent such infections. Another type of patient that sometimes needs to be treated by an immunologist are people with very bad allergies. Allergies occur when cells of your immune system which are meant to fight infections end up reacting to normal things in the environment, like pollen or dog hair. Lastly, some people have diseases in which cells of their immune system improperly begin attacking their own bodies. This is called autoimmunity, and needs to be carefully treated by doctors.

Another group of people who study immunology are research scientists. They study many different aspects of the immune system, working out exactly how certain cells in the body fight infection, cause allergies, or cause autoimmune diseases. Sometimes this involves growing cells in the laboratory and seeing how they work. Other times this could involve carrying out studies in animals to study how their immune systems fight actual infections (obviously immunologists cannot purposefully infect people to see how their immune systems work, so small animals like mice need to be used). Within the field of immunology there are also aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics that are often studied.

I hope this answers your question.