Session 5: Immunology of COVID-19: Why it’s Important to Build Up Immune Resilience

In light of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), practitioners must understand the intricacies of the immune system and how to build immune resilience.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:  

1. Identify three major components of the immune system: mucosal, humoral, and cell-mediated immunity.
2. Understand what strategy the coronavirus is using to circumvent the very sophisticated defenses of our immune system, the body’s homeland security.
3. Discuss why some people when exposed to the coronavirus do not get infected, some get only a mild infection, and some get a severe infection that may even lead to death.
4. Understand what autoimmunity is, and how viruses, particularly SARS-CoV-2, use different mechanisms to induce autoimmunity.
5. Identify why building up immune resilience is the best strategy against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.

About the Speaker

Aristo Vojdani, PhD, MSc, CLS

Aristo Vojdani, PhD, MSc, CLS, obtained his MSc and PhD in the fields of microbiology and clincal immunology from Bar-Ilan University in Israel with postdoctoral studies in comparative immunology at UCLA and tumor immunology at Charles Drew/UCLA School of Medicine and Science. He is presently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Dept. of Preventive Medicine at Loma Linda University in California, USA, and an Adjunct Professor at the Lincoln College of Professional, Graduate and Continuing Education at the National University of Health Sciences.

His ongoing research focuses on the role of environmental triggers in complex diseases. Dr. Vojdani's research has resulted in the development of more than 300 antibody assays for the detection of many autoimmune disorders and other diseases. He holds fifteen US patents for laboratory assessments of immune disorders associated with the brain and gut and has published more than 160 articles in magazines and scientific journals. He has just published the book "Neuroimmunity and the Brain-Gut Connection" with Nova Science Publishers. He is the CEO and Technical Director of Immunosciences Lab in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is also the Chief Scientific Advisor for Cyrex Labs in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Dr. Vojdani sits on the editorial board of five scientific journals. Over the years he has received the Herbert J. Rinkel Award, the Linus Pauling, PhD Award, and the F. R. Carrick Research Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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