Related papers: Tregs self-organize into a "computing ecosystem" a…
Biological systems, from cells to organisms, must respond to the ever changing environment in order to survive and function. This is not a simple task given the often random nature of the signals they receive, as well as the intrinsically…
T-cells play a key role in adaptive immunity by mounting specific responses against diverse pathogens. An effective binding between T-cell receptors (TCRs) and pathogen-derived peptides presented on Major Histocompatibility Complexes (MHCs)…
The innate immune system, acting as the first line of host defense, senses and adapts to foreign challenges through complex intracellular and intercellular signaling networks. Endotoxin tolerance and priming elicited by macrophages are…
One strategy for winning a coevolutionary struggle is to evolve rapidly. Most of the literature on host-pathogen coevolution focuses on this phenomenon, and looks for consequent evidence of coevolutionary arms races. An alternative…
The evolution of the adaptive immune system is characterized by changes in the relative abundances of the B- and T-cell clones that make up its repertoires. To fully capture this evolution, we need to describe the complex dynamics of the…
Recent studies have reported that T cells can integrate signals between interrupted encounters with Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs) in such a way that the process of signal integration exhibits a form of memory. Here, we carry out a…
One strategy for winning a coevolutionary struggle is to evolve rapidly. Most of the literature on host-pathogen coevolution focuses on this phenomenon, and looks for consequent evidence of coevolutionary arms races. An alternative…
We analyse a minimal model for the primary response in the adaptive immune system comprising three different players: antigens, T and B cells. We assume B-T interactions to be diluted and sampled locally from heterogeneous degree…
The evolution of cooperation in networked systems helps to understand the dynamics in social networks, multi-agent systems, and biological species. The self-persistence of individual strategies is common in real-world decision making. The…
Adaptive control in biological systems, such as intestinal immunity, remains poorly understood despite detailed knowledge of underlying regulatory networks. We propose an alternative framework based on stochastic martingale turnover, in…
The adaptive immune system is a natural diagnostic and therapeutic. It recognizes threats earlier than clinical symptoms manifest and neutralizes antigen with exquisite specificity. Recognition specificity and broad reactivity is enabled…
The immune system normally protects the human host against death by infection. However, when an immune response is mistakenly directed at self antigens, autoimmune disease can occur. We describe a model of protein evolution to simulate the…
It has been known for some time that human autoimmune diseases can be triggered by viral infections. Several possible mechanisms of interactions between a virus and immune system have been analysed, with a prevailing opinion being that the…
Following antigen stimulation, the net outcomes of a T cell response are shaped by integrated signals from both positive co-stimulatory and negative regulatory molecules. Recently, the blockade of negative regulatory molecules (i.e. immune…
Cytotoxic T lymphocytes eliminate infected or malignant cells, safeguarding surrounding tissues. Although experimental and systems-immunology studies have cataloged many molecular and cellular actors involved in an immune response, the…
In this work we adopt a statistical mechanics approach to investigate basic, systemic features exhibited by adaptive immune systems. The lymphocyte network made by B-cells and T-cells is modeled by a bipartite spin-glass, where, following…
We present a probabilistic T-cell model that includes negative selection and takes contrasting models of tissue-restricted antigen (TRA) expression in the thymus into account. We start from the basic model of van den Berg, Rand, and…
The adaptive immune system provides a diverse set of molecules that can mount specific responses against a multitude of pathogens. Memory is a key feature of adaptive immunity, which allows organisms to respond more readily upon…
The immune system can be thought as a complex network of different interacting elements. A cellular automaton, defined in shape-space, was recently shown to exhibit self-regulation and complex behavior and is, therefore, a good candidate to…
The ability of the adaptive immune system to respond to arbitrary pathogens stems from the broad diversity of immune cell surface receptors (TCRs). This diversity originates in a stochastic DNA editing process (VDJ recombination) that acts…