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The Immunomics of Lymphocyte Repertoires (a Tasting Menu)
From Q-bio
Abstract: The immune system is a highly complex system, capable of cognitive tasks such as pathogen recognition, decision, learning and memory. This is a distributed system, in which the tasks are performed by an interacting network of specialized cells - primarily lymphocytes. Immune learning and memory are embedded in the dynamical states of the complete lymphocyte repertoire, and cannot be understood by studying the behavior of single cell types. This complexity, further increased by the non-linear behavior of each component, can only be elucidated by using theoretical tools to complement experimental and clinical studies. I shall review several examples of the use of such tools in immunological research.
