Innate immunity and its significance for biology and medicine

The past 50 years have witnessed impressive achievements in preventing and curing many of the most dangerous diseases. However, the mechanisms that realize the ability of a living organism to struggle against violations of various origin in its normal functioning have remained unclear for a long time. The newest immunological studies give grounds to hope that a general theory of immunity and novel methods of maintaining it will appear in the near future. This was the topic of the paper by RAS Corresponding Member S.A. Nedospasov at a meeting of the RAS Presidium. Below are the paper materials and the subsequent discussion.