Our main interest is to understand basic dynamical and organizational issues in the physiology of the immune system, from molecular to cell and tissue levels, whether homeostatic/maintenance processes or antigen-triggered immune response processes. To this aim we develop models using conceptual and mathematical tools, and analyze them using mathematical and computational tools.
Some of the specific areas we have been or are working are:
- Dynamics of B and T cells under an idiotypic network.
- Analysis of thymic ligand diversity involved in thymocyte selection.
- Development and homeostatic maintenance of T cells.
- B-cell and T-cell activation through their antigen-receptors, BCR and TCR, respectively.
- Theoretical analysis of different assays to estimate TCR-ligand binding kinetic constant rates and affinity.
- Modeling different aspects of the germinal center (GC) reaction.