Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe physical and chemical immune barriersExplain immediate and induced innate immune responsesDiscuss natural killer cellsDescribe major histocompatibility class I moleculesSummarize how the proteins in a complement system function to destroy extracellular pathogens

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Even with antibiotics, severe pneumonia can lead to sepsis and death. Researchers in Germany have now identified a promising new therapy that may improve outcomes. Reporting in the journal Anesthesiology, the scientists indicate that targeting C5a, a component of the body’s complement system, may be a novel adjunctive therapy for severe pneumonia. One reason why patients don’t fare well with Streptococcus pneumoniae is that their highly activated immune system can damage tissue as it tries to clear the pathogen from the body. An important part of the body's first-line immune defense is the complement system, plasma proteins that patrol the body and coordinate with immune cells to kill invading bacteria. For example, when complement protein C5 is cleaved into C5a and C5b, C5b goes on to poke holes in bacteria. The smaller C5a is pro-inflammatory, attracting and activating neutrophils and making blood vessel walls more permeable to immune cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Many lung cancer deaths are due to cancer-associated coagulation disorders (CACDs) that lead to blood clots. However, the exact mechanisms of these disorders aren’t clear. Researchers recently investigated whether immune cells called mast cells, which are known to participate in other coagulation abnormalities, contribute to CACDs. Specifically, they analyzed the presence of mast cells in lung cancer tissues using sequencing data. The researchers found that the proportion of mast cells was closely correlated with the expression levels of blood clot–related genes, as well as genes associated with neutrophil extracellular traps, which are web-like structures released by immune cells that can act as scaffolds for blood clots. In cell experiments, mast cells derived from mouse bone marrow were able to take up small vesicles (exosomes) from lung cancer cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.