Talk abstract:

ImmSim: A Cellular Automaton Model
for Simulation of the Immune System

Philip E. Seiden, IBM/Princeton

We have constructed a model for simulating the immune system with the idea of using it as a vehicle for performing experiments ``in machina," experiments in the computer. The model is based on a cellular automaton which allows relatively easy inclusion of many of the complexities of real immunological systems, often allows the parameters and interactions of the model entities to be entered in a transparently biological manner, and quite naturally exhibits the variation and fluctuations encountered in ``in vivo" and ``in vitro" experiments. The original humoral model has been extended to include new function and a new model including both the cellular and humoral systems has been developed. I will discuss the capabilities of the present models, present some results that have been obtained, and describe some of the work being undertaken with the new extensions.

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1998-1999 Mathematics in Biology