• Question: How has our immune system changed since the dawn of man?

    Asked by Aown to Carmen, Daniel, Laura, Noel, Steph on 18 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Noel Carter

      Noel Carter answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Since the dawn of man I don’t think it has changed much at all. It has changed lots since the dawn of life though

    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hi Aown,

      Cool question, I like taking a step back and thinking of things from an evolutionary point of view. We have generally always had the same equipment of cells and body parts and organs that provide our immune system. However, interestingly our close relatives the apes and monkeys do have different immune systems than us, so we have evolved away from their immunity needs and created a niche system for protecting ourselves. Humans fight diseases slightly differently, or are immune to diseases monkeys could get, or vice versa. Interesting to me that such a genetically close fellow species could have a different immune response, but pathogens in turn op have evolved to rapidly be “specialists” in different species as well.

      Cheers!
      Carmen

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