Immunogenetics Immunogenetics Immunogenetics or immungenetics is the branch of medical genetics that explores the relationship between the immune system and genetics. Autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, are complex genetic traits which result from defects in the immune system. Identification of genes defining the immune defects may identify new target genes for therapeutic approaches. Alternatively, genetic variations can also help to define the immunological pathway leading to disease. Its origin is usually attributed to Edward Jenner, who discovered in 1796 that cowpox, or vaccinia, induced protection against human smallpox. It took two centuries before the World Health Organization announced in
Thomas Jenner (publisher) Jenner published a series of tracts entitled "A further Narrative of the Passages of these Times", containing an engraving of the populace pulling down Cheapside Cross, together with portraits of Oliver Cromwell, Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, and Sir William Wadd, Constable of the Tower, signed "Thomas Jenner fecit". In 1650 he issued "A Work for none but Angels and Men, that is to be able to look into and know ourselves. Or a Booke showing what the Soule is". According to Thomas Corser it is a prose translation of Sir John Davies's poem on the immortality of the