Franco Celada - Böcker

This book describes a computational model of the immune system reaction, C-ImmSim. The book presents the basic model as well as the various customizations to implement the description of different diseases and the way they have been used to produce new knowledge either from hypothesis or from experimental data. The book can be used as a practical guide to implement a computational model with which to study a specific disease and to try to address realistic clinical questions.

This volume is the collection of papers presented during a four day meeting, the EMBO workshop "Protein Conformation as an Immunological Signal" that took place at Portovenere (La Spezia), Italy, October 1-4, 1981. The motivation that drove us to organize this meeting was the feeling that distinct groups of researchers, active in key areas of modern immunology, sometimes fail to communicate with each other simply because of different traditional affiliations. Yet it is urgent that "molecular" and "cellular" people cooperate more if immunology is to continue the exportation of new concepts to other disciplines. In fact, the deep meaning of molecule-molecule and cell-cell interaction, the generation of signals and their effective transmission which results in elicitation, control or suppression of responses cannot be unraveled without the experts on antibody structure or complement activation sharing their views with the experts on T cell, B cell and macrophage membrane receptors as well as the experts on factors that carry the information released by these cells. Whether the meeting was scientifically fruitful, the reader can judge after having digested these pages. We, the organizers, are not sure whether the optimal amount·of interaction had taken place; especially considering how hard it is to overcome the scientist's catch 22: You have to know something quite well before you get really interested in it. In any event, we are convinced that Portovenere was one of the most successful attempts we have witnessed.

This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Porto Conte (Alghero), Sardinia, September 15-27, 1991. The A. S. 1. was attended by 86 graduate and postgraduate students from 18 different countries, and was hosted by the newly founded International Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Porto Conte, directed by Prof. Marcello Siniscalco. The A. S. I. was funded by NATO Scientific Affairs Division, the International Union of Immunological Societies, the European Community (Directorate General for Science, Research and Development), the Italian Research Council, and the San Raffaele Institute of Milano. In addition, a number of students who reside in the U. S. received travel funds from the U. S. National Science Foundation, and the Turkish National Fund provided financial assistance to several students from Turkey. When we decided to organize a course on T lymphocytes, our concern was to reach a balance between the teaching of both the hard core principles and the latest experimental findings of cellular immunology, and the recently expanded interfaces with the not-yet­ known: hypotheses, speCUlations, new projections to be born from the discussions.

This book describes a computational model of the immune system reaction, C-ImmSim. The book presents the basic model as well as the various customizations to implement the description of different diseases and the way they have been used to produce new knowledge either from hypothesis or from experimental data. The book can be used as a practical guide to implement a computational model with which to study a specific disease and to try to address realistic clinical questions.