Second generation immune networks

Abstract

Network approaches have had little impact on immunology because they have addressed the wrong questions. They have concentrated on the regulation of clonal immune responses rather than on the supraclonal properties of the immune system that emerge from its network organization, such as natural tolerance and memory. Theoretical advances, observations in unimmunized mice and humans, and the success of novel therapeutics in autoimmune diseases have recently promoted a new burst of research on the structure, temporal dynamics and metadynamical plasticity of immune networks.