Q 01/05

The immune system has two major subsystems. The innate system gives a preconfigured response; what does the other, adaptive system do?

A) Regulates core body temperature

B) Learns to recognise molecules it has met before

C) Repairs damaged DNA in ageing cells

D) Produces red blood cells and platelets

Answer · why

B) Learns to recognise molecules it has met before

Its immunological memory is the basis of vaccination.

Q 02/05

Which type of white blood cell is the most abundant, making up 50-70% of leukocytes?

A) Lymphocytes

B) Eosinophils

C) Neutrophils

D) Monocytes

Answer · why

C) Neutrophils

Roughly 100 billion are produced each day and they live only 5 to 135 hours.

Q 03/05

The process by which cells such as macrophages engulf and digest pathogens is called what?

A) Osmosis

B) Chemotaxis

C) Apoptosis

D) Phagocytosis

Answer · why

D) Phagocytosis

The engulfed pathogen is trapped in a phagosome that fuses with a lysosome; it is probably the oldest form of host defence.

Q 04/05

Which Russian zoologist discovered how cells engulf invaders, in 1882, by sticking citrus thorns into starfish larvae?

A) Dmitri Mendeleev

B) Élie Metchnikoff

C) Nikolai Vavilov

D) Ivan Pavlov

Answer · why

B) Élie Metchnikoff

Working in a private lab in Messina, Sicily, he watched unusual cells surround the thorns; he is called the father of innate immunity.

Q 05/05

The 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went jointly to the founder of cellular immunology and which German scientist, author of the side-chain theory?

A) Rudolf Virchow

B) Paul Ehrlich

C) Emil von Behring

D) Robert Koch

Answer · why

B) Paul Ehrlich

Ehrlich also coined the "magic bullet" idea and discovered Salvarsan, the first drug aimed at a specific pathogen.