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Start of funding 01.07.2020
Nonlinear Immunity: how self-organisation of ligand-receptor complexes orchestrates immune response
Prof. Dr. Vasily Zaburdaev
Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Department Biologie Lehrstuhl für Mathematik in der Lebenswissenschaft
Prof. PhD Gerard C.L. Wong
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Department of Bioenginnering and Chemistry
A central paradigm in immunology is the recognition of “pathogen associated molecular pattern”
molecules by the individual receptors of immune cells. The recognition of antigenic molecules
leads to the activation of immune cells, upregulation of costimulatory molecules, and secretion
of cytokines. Cytokines are responsible for a broad spectrum of outcomes ranging from
recruitment of specific immune cells to the site of inflammation to secretion of more
antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides can further organize immune ligands
for amplification of immune responses thus making the process of innate immune activation to be
intrinsically nonlinear. Here we propose to investigate how the receptor-ligand clustering at the
level of cell membrane and nonlinearity of the downstream signaling together
regulate immune activation and over-activation as occurring in autoimmune disease as well as
in cytokine storms observed during sepsis and in recent super-virus infections such as COVID-19.