immunology

Definition

Immunology is the study of the immune system, encompassing the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms that protect organisms from pathogens, cancer, and foreign substances. It examines innate and adaptive immunity, including immune cell development, antigen recognition, immune signaling cascades, cytokine networks, and immunological memory. Key concepts include antibody production, T-cell and B-cell activation, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) presentation, complement pathways, and immune tolerance. Immunology is critical for understanding autoimmune diseases, allergies, immunodeficiencies, transplant rejection, and vaccine development. Modern immunology integrates systems biology approaches to map complex immune cell interactions and signaling networks that orchestrate immune responses.

Visualize immunology in Nodes Bio

Researchers can visualize immune signaling pathways, cytokine-receptor networks, and immune cell interaction maps in Nodes Bio. Network analysis reveals how immune cells communicate through cytokines, how antigen presentation connects innate and adaptive immunity, and how dysregulated immune networks contribute to autoimmune diseases. Causal inference tools help identify key regulatory nodes controlling immune responses for therapeutic targeting.

Example Use Case

A pharmaceutical team investigating rheumatoid arthritis uses network visualization to map pro-inflammatory cytokine cascades involving TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β. They integrate transcriptomic data from synovial tissue with known protein-protein interactions to identify central signaling hubs. The network reveals JAK-STAT pathway nodes as critical mediators connecting multiple cytokine signals. This analysis guides selection of JAK inhibitors as therapeutic candidates and predicts potential combination therapy targets by identifying parallel inflammatory pathways that might compensate for single-target inhibition.

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