Abstract:

Our survival depends on the success of our immune responses. When viewed with a lens of a physicist, the immune system appears to be composed of many active interlinked processes spanning a range of length and time scales akin to connecting jiggling of water molecules to the formation of snowflakes. A major challenge in gleaning mechanisms in immune system is the role of synergy between a large number of diverse components in giving rise to unique immune responses. Physics has a rich history of successfully dealing with similar complex systems to generate mechanistic insights and answer “what if” questions. Can these tools and insights be used for uncovering mechanisms and making predictive models for our immune system? I will briefly outline projects in our group where approaches from physical sciences have been able to help address such challenges pertaining to response of single immune cells and a viral infection of an animal model.