Antigens and Antibodies

Hi all,

Tomorrow we will be doing a classroom model of what's called the specific immune response - the way your immune system creates long term immunity to specific diseases.  For example, you may have heard that you can only get chicken pox once - you get sick once, but if you are ever exposed to the pox virus again your body has a very specific set of defenses built up to deal with that virus.  This is long-term, specific immunity - but how does it come about?  Stay tuned to find out.

Homework
Using p.638-40 in your text, you will:

1) Do flashcards for "antigen" and "antibody"
2) In your class journal, explain how antigens and antibodies interact.  A drawing might be useful to show their binding.

Additionally, you may want to preview the diagram on p.639, as this will be the focus of our model tomorrow.

Thanks,
Mr. Hill