When we’re sick, the time between onset and diagnosis is critical, sometimes life-saving.

It turns out the human immune system is pretty good at knowing what’s making us sick. In fact, it’s telling us all the time, but only now is science tuning in to what nature has to say, explains Purvesh Khatri. The immune system is a “perfect diagnostic,” he tells host Russ Altman in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Related: Purvesh Khatri, associate professor of medicine