Hello and welcome to the first episode
in a new series called Immunology Wars.
Immunology Wars is a collaborative project created by Dr Nigel Francis with help from Ross
Davy, Sean Holm and Severina Peneva. The four of us are all massive Star Wars
fans and as an immunologist I'm also
passionate about trying to find ways to
explain the basic functions of the
immune system in a way that makes it
accessible to everybody. Immunology Wars is our attempt to do just that to explain
the basic functions of the human immune
system through the greatest movie
franchise ever made, Star Wars.
So as you may be aware the body will always try to
maintain homeostasis or balance. In Star
Wars terms we can think of this as the
balance between the light and the dark
sides of the force, the light side
represents the body and the immune system defending it, the dark side represents
pathogens attacking our body and trying
to cause disease.
In Star Wars there is a constant battle between the light and the dark sides of the force. Just as
there is a constant battle between the
immune system and the pathogens that are
attacking our body to try and make it their
home. The dark side can take on many
forms, think of this as Emperor Palpatine
Count Dooku or Darth Vader as the
different Sith lords with each one of
these having their own agenda and desire
to manipulate the Force for their own
personal gain. In immunological terms
these different Sith lords are the
different types of pathogens or diseases
we may encounter. So, for example, they may be a virus or a bacteria looking to
infect our body cells or one of our own
cells that has become cancerous and is
trying to cause disease from within. When the immune system actually detects a threat
it will try to eliminate it to restore
balance or homeostasis.
This is same as when the dark side starts to gain and strength, for example, the emergence
of Palpatine apprentice Darth Maul and
the light side becoming aware of this
threat and sending Obi-Wan to meet it and try to eliminate it.
What's really important to remember here, however, is that just like the Jedi Order the immune
system is designed to be a peacekeeper, 
it should only do what is necessary to
restore or maintain balance without any
agenda of its own. So that is it should
only try to repair or eliminate a threat,
however, if the immune system goes wrong
and it can go wrong in quite catastrophic ways it is capable of massive destruction.
We can think of this as when the Jedi Order starts acting at the command of
Chancellor Palpatine and the Galactic
Senate instead of independently and
elements of the Jedi Order are able to
turn against the very thing they once
served, such as when Anakin Skywalker
succumbs to the dark side under the lure
of Palpatine and takes his place at the
Emperor's side as Darth Vader.
This is very similar in what happens in our own bodies during an autoimmune disease when
the immune system starts to attack our
own body or during cancer when one of our
own cells becomes cancerous and starts
to proliferate uncontrollably.
So this is just a brief overview and a snapshot of what we're going to be covering during
Immunology Wars. In our next video Episode I, The Unseen Threat we'll be covering
physical barriers that stop pathogens
from actually entering our body in the
first place and the innate immune system
which is the frontline against any
pathogens that do manage to breach these defences. Join us then.
