Basic Immunology and Its Clinical Application

This book overviews ongoing and upcoming clinical applications of basic immunology. Recent advances in our knowledge of immunology coupled with new technologies have aided in the development of efficient cancer immunotherapy, as well as the control of emerging microorganisms such as SARS-CoV-2. However, knowledge of basic immunology has not been fully utilized even after the discoveries of immune checkpoint inhibition for cancer immunotherapy and the development of mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. There is still room for improving the clinical application of basic immunology.

The book summarizes the achievements in clinical applications of basic immunology and highlights what can be further extended to make immunology a more practical human science. Basic immunology and its clinical applications are two wheels of the same cart in the immunology field, which aids in the development of more efficient cancer immunotherapy and rapid control of infectious diseases against microorganisms, including new viruses and classical toxoplasmosis.

The exploration of ongoing and upcoming applications of basic immunology in this book makes it a useful resource for immunologists, physicians, molecular and genome biologists, bioinformaticians, and students in these fields.

Mitsuru Matsumoto, MD, PhD, was a Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Institute for Enzyme Research at Tokushima University, Japan, and has been a Professor Emeritus at Tokushima University since 2023. He completed his MD, PhD at Ehime University, School of Medicine. His fields of study include immunology, internal medicine, and genetics engineering. His research focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of autoimmune disease.