Theoretical Immunology, Part One

Assuming that the complex phenomena underlying the operation of the immune system may be better understood through the collaborative efforts of theorists and experimentalists viewing the same phenomena in different ways, theSante Fe Instituteand the Theoretical Division ofLos Alamos National Laboratorycosponsored a workshop entitled"Theoretical Immunology." The workshop focused on themes spanning the field of immunology, with emphasis on areas where the theorists have made the most progress. This book covers the discussions a that workshop on the topics of immune surveillance, mathematical models of HIV infection, complexities of antigen-antibody systems, immune suppression and tolerance, and idiotypie networks. In each of these areas there is reason to believe that advances can be made either through interactions among experimentalists and theorists or through the critical look experimentalists and theorists will bring to bear upon one another's work.

Alan S. Perelson is a Staff Member of the Theoretical Biophysics Group, and an affiliate of the Center for Nonlinear Studios, University of California, Los Alamos, National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972. Perelson received the N.I.H. Research Career Development Award (1979-1984); and the Bousch Lomb Medal for Excellence in Biology. His research interests are the application of mathematics to immunological, physiological, chemical, and biophysical problems.