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Our immune system provides the means for us to live in a world full of pathogens. However, sometimes it gets it wrong and we can find ourselves debilitated because of our own immune system. Allergies and hypersensitivies fall into this category, with symptoms ranging from the mildly irritating, to the life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Our knowledge of these ailments come from a variety of observational and experimental studies.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they did not understand the immune system nor allergies. Terms used to describe these diseases (that we know today as allergies) were Summer colds, Summer flu, Hay-asthma, and Hay-fever. The causes were unknown, the treatment ranged from experimental to dangerous and the Scientists often used themselves as the study subjects/volunteers. However, it took some clever minds and quite a bit of courage (not to mention a lot of dogs and other experimental animals) to gather the understanding of these conditions that we have today.

Our special guest is Dr Daman Langguth Head of Immunology Department Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology (SNP), Chair of SNP Partners, Member of Executive Advisory Committee, Chair of the Data Request Committee.

Daman has particular expertise in the investigation of auto-immune disease, allergy, and immune deficiency and has special interests in idiopathic inflammatory myositis, vasculitis, IgG4-related systemic disease and e-Health.

SNP’s Immunology Department is the largest laboratory of its kind in Australia.