Abstract: Cell-to-cell communication networks have critical roles in coordinating diverse organismal processes, such as tissue development or immune cell response. In particular, cytokine-driven differentiation, activation and proliferation of immune cells give rise to multi-layered regulatory circuits. Compared with intracellular signal transduction networks, the function and engineering principles of cell-to-cell communication networks are far less understood. Major complications include: cells are themselves regulated by complex intracellular signaling networks; individual cells are heterogeneous; and importantly, cells are subject to proliferation and cell death, and often show exponential growth at the onset of an immune response. In this talk, I will outline the challenges on the way to data-driven models of immune-cell interactions, and describe our strategy to tackle those challenges. In recent work, we developed a data-annotated model of Th cell dynamics in LCMV infection in mice, we derived measures characterizing cell-cell interaction in space, and we performed detailed analyses of time-course transcriptomic signatures of cell-cell communication. Overall, we found that data-driven modeling and large-scale transcriptomic analysis of immune cell interaction dynamics can open new perspectives on decision-making processes at the onset and chronification of an immune response.

Seminar: By Professor Kevin Thurley