Understanding the Immune System Responses

在计算机科学和许多其他领域的界面上有许多具有挑战性的问题。近年来，计算机科学家在DNA序列组装、序列分析、蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用和细胞内信号通讯等领域做出了广泛的贡献。然而，有许多系统级的生物学领域，是成熟的跨学科的方法。这项提议探索了这样一个领域-免疫系统。在对微生物感染的反应中，对微生物的小结构成分高度特异的免疫细胞被激活。将研究这种高度并行搜索的过程。另一个具有挑战性的问题是免疫细胞产生耐受性的过程。这样的研究将有助于理解恶性肿瘤细胞如何逃避免疫细胞而永生化。智力价值这项研究将为非常重要的免疫学现象提供理论基础。基于空间和时间方面的新搜索算法需要开发新的理论工具。更广泛的影响癌症治疗的新突破将取决于免疫学的快速发展。即使癌症的一般治疗（局部形式的放射治疗和转移形式的化疗）将继续在癌症治疗中发挥主导作用，更有针对性的抗体和其他免疫方式将得到更广泛的使用。与全身化疗相比，这些药物的副作用可能更少。对免疫反应的更好理解可能会导致应对垃圾邮件、网络钓鱼和计算机系统病毒攻击的新方法。

A Project SummaryThere are many challenging problems at the interface of computer science and many otherfields. Recently computer scientists have contributed extensively to areas such as DNAsequence assembly, sequence analysis, protein-protein interactions and intra-cellular signalcommunication. However, there are many system-level biology areas which are ripe forinter-disciplinary approaches. This proposal explores one such area - the immune system.In response to a microbial infection, the immune cells which are highly specific to smallstructural components of the microbe get activated. The process by which this highly parallelsearch gets accomplished will be studied. Another challenging problem is the process bywhich the immune cells develop tolerance. Such a study will be useful in understanding howmalignant cells become immortalized evading the immune cells.Intellectual MeritThe proposed research will provide a theoretical foundation to very important immunologicalphenomenon. New search algorithms based on spatial and temporal aspects requiredevelopment of new theoretical tools.Broader ImpactsNew breakthroughs in cancer treatment will depend upon rapid advances in immunology.Even though generic treatments for cancer (radiation treatment for localized forms andchemotherapies for metastatic forms) will continue to play dominant roles in cancer treatment,more targeted antibody and other immunological modalities will become more widelyused. These will have potentially fewer side effects compared to generalized chemotherapies.A better understanding of the immune responses could result in new approaches forcoping with spam, phishing and viral attacks of computer systems.A-1