@article{859606, note = {Includes index.}, author = {Richtel, Matt,}, url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/859606}, title = {An elegant defense : the extraordinary new science of the immune system : a tale in four lives /}, abstract = {The immune system is a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. Richtel interweaves the stories of four people: a terminal cancer patient who rises from the grave; a medical marvel who defies HIV; two women with autoimmunity who discover their own bodies have turned against them. As he leads us from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to the cutting-edge laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology, his four patients each illuminates an essential facet of our "elegant defense." -- adapted from jacket}, recid = {859606}, pages = {xi, 425 pages :}, }