Web Exhibition

To celebrate this year’s Day of Immunology (29 April 2011) and promote immunology to a large public, the EFIS launches a web-exhibition composed of scientific pictures and videos. Like a photo-exhibit, short captions come with the fabulous pictures selected from two institutions – the Pasteur Institute and the INSERM) to explain what is the immune system made of, how it combats pathogens. The story told throughout the visuals is the story of a never-ending fight between the good ones, our white cells, and the bad ones, the viruses, bacteria, parasites and so on. If the immune system doesn’t win each time, hopefully there are immunologists to help. This is the morality of this virtual exhibition. The idea of this project came from the fact that research institutes produce incredible images and videos of what is going on inside our body. They are strongly appealing, and when the caption explains that what looks like a painting is actually a macrophage swallowing bacteria like this one, then the picture becomes fascinating. There are also little videos where we can see lymphocytes checking a reticulocyte, or the invasion of the bacteria on a respiratory tissue when the immune system is impaired.

Watch the exhibition online: www.inside-immunity.org.

The EFIS board welcomes everyone to use this exhibition for their own promotional activities on immunology. Help us to publish the exhibition translated to other languages as well, to bring immunological awareness to the public in your country! Please contact the EFIS Coordinator Ms. Astrid HAHNER (hahner@efis.org) for details!

The large public has too few occasions to see these striking pictures or videos of life at a cellular level, this is why this exhibition is virtual, accessible for everyone and targeting a large audience. Feel free to spread the word!