Contact: Jean-Yves Le Boudec
Site: (Bio-Informatics) Numerical Simulation of Immune System (1)
The Immune System of vertebrates is a complex biological system that helps fight various infections and attacks. Its involves a complex interaction between the innate immune system (macrophages, complement proteins, dentritic cells and the adaptive immune system (T- and B- lymphocytes). The innate system provides the danger signals required to trigger the adaptive system, which in turn activates the innate system. The adaptive system uses a set of negative and positive selection procedures to create B- and T-cells that are efficient at turning down agressions. Sometimes however, the adaptive immune system itself is the cause of diseases. Understanding the performance aspects of the immune system is key to help in refining medical responses to diseases such as cancer, AIDS and auto-immune diseases.
The goal of this project is to help develop models of the kinetics of immune reactions. More precisely, this project will define a simple language (TSED) to capture and describe species interactions.
Benefits: exposure to interdisciplinary research with biologists at the university hospital
Student info: See also http://ica1www.epfl.ch/IS/