Lymphocyte Kinetics in Health and Disease: a workshop

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Immune cell dynamics are a crucial determinant of human health. The correct balance between immune cell proliferation and death guarantees a functioning immune system that contains cells of sufficient range and quantity to be able to recognize and destroy all pathogens. Dysregulation of the dynamic balance underpins many pathologies including AIDS (immune cell depletion) and leukemia (aberrant immune cell growth). Understanding immune cell dynamics is therefore a prerequisite for understanding the human immune system both in health and disease.In the last 10 years significant advances in experimental techniques and in the mathematics needed to interpret these experiments have enabled the measurement of immune cell dynamics in humans. However, different mathematical and experimental techniques can give significantly different answers. To date, there is no consensus on which techniques should be used. Modelling of immune cell dynamics is an intrinsically interdisciplinary subject. There is currently no forum to discuss the modeling of immune cell dynamics and so mathematicians and experimentalists attend their single subject-specific conferences and have little opportunity to meet. The aim of this two day interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together mathematicians and immunologists who are experts in immune cell dynamics with a view to exchange ideas, disseminate knowledge, initiate collaborations and ultimately to reach a consensus on the optimal mathematical and experimental techniques.