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Editorial

Nature Nanotechnology 4, 395 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.162

Of mice and men

When a foreign material enters the body, our immune system detects, isolates and destroys it in a number of ways. Some of these tasks are performed by specialized cells called macrophages, which engulf and neutralize the material in a process called phagocytosis, but if this fails, the foreign material can cause inflammation and other problems.