Immunology for physicists
Abstract
The immune system is a complex system of cells and molecules that can provide us with a basic defense against pathogenic organisms. Like the nervous system, the immune system performs pattern recognition tasks, learns, and retains a memory of the antigens that it has fought. The immune system contains more than ${10}^{7}$ different clones of cells that communicate via cell-cell contact and the secretion of molecules. Performing complex tasks such as learning and memory involves cooperation among large numbers of components of the immune system and hence there is interest in using methods and concepts from statistical physics. Furthermore, the immune response develops in time and the description of its time evolution is an interesting problem in dynamical systems. In this paper, the authors provide a brief introduction to the biology of the immune system and discuss a number of immunological problems in which the use of physical concepts and mathematical methods has increased our understanding.
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The basic McCulloch-Pitts design is common to many other living systems, including gene regulatory networks, immune networks, collective intelligence or some aneural systems, such as quorum-sensing decisions in microbial communities.
“Interestingly, the basic McCulloch–Pitts design is common to many other living systems, including gene regulatory networks [256–259], immune networks [260–262], collective intelligence [263–267] or some aneural systems, such as quorum-sensing decisions in microbial communities, where an explicit equivalence has been defined [268].”
From Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems (2024) · cites this paper as [261]
Cites
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- Authors
- Perelson, A. S., & Weisbuch, G.
- Affiliations
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- ORCID
- Perelson, Alan S.
- Venue
- Reviews of Modern Physics
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 1997-10-01
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1219-1268
- ISSN
- 0034-6861 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-0756
- OpenAlex
- W1971201122
- Cited by
- 574
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 9.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Reviews of Modern Physics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Artificial Immune Systems Applications
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune Response and Inflammation
- Keywords
- immune system, pattern recognition, immunological memory, antigen recognition, intercellular communication, dynamical systems, immunology
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