Integrative Systems Analysis of Host Immune Functions in Pathogen Infections and Vaccines

Douglas A. Lauffenburger, PhD
Ford Professor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Seminar Abstract: Because of the complexity of immune responses to pathogens, our ability to gain insights and principles from experimental interrogation of blood and tissue samples, from human subjects as well as animal models, can be enhanced by computational analysis and modeling embracing an integrative systems perspective. Motivation for combined experimental/computational systems analysis of multi-modal immune response data derives from fundamental issues: concomitant contributions from multiple molecular and cellular features together govern observed responses, rather than any single feature being determinative by itself; and these multi-feature contributions typically are not independent but instead highly covarying. Computational modeling approaches rooted in ‘machine learning’ accommodate these issues and in fact offer enhanced capabilities in statistical power and biological interpretation. This talk will offer examples of application of this integrative systems immunology approach to a variety of collaborative studies of host immune response studies in pathogen infections and vaccines.