ABSTRACT
Infections are diseases that arise in any given individual as a result of complex interactions between the environment, the pathogen and the host. An understanding of the host response component of this interaction is important for the development and targeting of novel therapies and vaccines. Investigations of host responses have indicated that large numbers of mediators are likely to be involved. Molecular genetics provides a new tool to study these complicated interactions. It has the potential to identify true susceptibility and therefore the causal mechanisms in the disease pathogenesis.
