The word 'immunity' is derived from the Latin term, 'immunitas,' which refers to the exemption of Roman senators from legal prosecution during their tenure in the Roman Senate. This word has long been used to refer to protection from disease, particularly, infectious diseases. The cells and molecules that create immunity comprise the immune system, and their coherent and collective reaction to external substances is called an immune response. Nowadays, immunology is defined as the ability to identify and distinguish what is self from what is non-self (foreign). Historians often credit Thucydides as having first introduced the concept of immunity in the fifth century BC. He used this term to mean an infection that he called plague. However, it might differ from the bubonic plague we know today. Nonetheless, a study of the History of Immunology indicates that immunology had been recognized by Iranians and Chinese roughly ten centuries BC. They immunized healthy individuals against smallpox using the skin of lesions taken from patients suffering from smallpox. This method of immunizing an individual against smallpox is called variolation. The most eloquent testament to the significance of immunology is the announcement issued by WHO in 1980 concerning the eradication of smallpox. According to this announcement, smallpox is the first infectious disease that was eradicated worldwide by vaccination.

The Department of Immunology of LUMS was inaugurated in the fall of 2015 with five faculty members. We have recently established postgraduate programs.

Head of the Department: Dr. Ali Mohammad Varzi (PhD of immunology from the University of Aberdeen)

Academic Rank: Assistant professor

Email: avarzi@yahoo.co.uk

Faculty Members:

Contact Us:

Address: Department of Immunology, the third floor, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Kamalvand Campus, Khorramabad, Iran.