Systems immunology

Systems immunology is a recent research field that, under the larger umbrella of systems biology, aims to study the immune system in the more integrated perspective on how entities and players participate at different system levels to the immune function.

The immune system has been thoroughly analyzed as regards to its components and function by using a very successful "reductionist" approach, but its overall functioning principles cannot easily be predicted by studying the properties of its isolated components because they strongly rely on and arise from the interactions among these numerous constituents. Systems immunology represents a different approach for the integrated comprehension of the immune system structure and function based on complex systems theory, high-throughput techniques, as well as on mathematical and computational tools.

Bibliography

Articles

• Christophe Benoist, Ronald N. Germain, Diane Mathis, Immunological Reviews, Volume 210, Number 1, April 2006, pp. 229-234 (6) A Plaidoyer for 'Systems Immunology'

• Steven H. Kleinstein, PLoS Comput Biol. 2008 Aug 29;4(8):e1000128. Getting started in computational immunology

• Charlotte Schubert, Nature 473 (7345), 5 May 2011, pp. 113–114, Systems immunology: Complexity captured