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This is the puzzle being worked on by Professor Ben Seddon and his team. 鈥淢y team does the more fundamental research 鈥� the kind of work needed before we can get to the point of being able to translate understanding into treatment,鈥� explained Prof Seddon.

鈥淲e want to understand how immune memory works 鈥� how your body remembers whether or not it can fight off a particular infection or disease. This is important because it鈥檚 how vaccines work and is now also being exploited by some immunotherapy treatments against cancer.鈥�

It was recognised as far back as 430 BC, during the plague of Athens, that people who had survived the disease could nurse people with the disease without getting ill again. Although this and later聽 observations were exploited by Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur in the development of vaccination, the underlying mechanisms still have to be uncovered if we are to be able to develop all the vaccinations and immunological treatments we need.

鈥淲e still don鈥檛 fully understand how immune memory functions and how the immune system manages to remember that chicken pox encounter it had as a child or a cold that鈥檚 going around, 鈥� said Prof Seddon. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have vaccines for the common cold, HIV and malaria, for example. So there鈥檚 still a lot of work to be done.鈥�

One of his key tools is mathematics. 鈥淲e try to understand how memory works as an integrated system, using computer models and simulations. We want to be able to predict how the immune system can remember things and understand the rules that control that process.

Immune system memory

鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to the way that meteorologists use computers to predict the weather - they have an understanding of how weather systems work and the rules of high and low pressure, so they can make predictions. That鈥檚 the sort of approach that we use. 鈥淲e want to understand how immunological memories work using computer simulations and models, then we can make predictions about what鈥檚 needed to make a good memory and how long it might last. We can then apply that knowledge to making more, and more effective vaccines.鈥�

Another potential benefit of this work is the ability to understand the ageing process better and help people live healthier lives for longer. 鈥淧eople鈥檚 immune systems start to slow down and there鈥檚 a risk that it is not working properly as you get older. This is a real problem.鈥�

Finding room for cells

T-cells are at the core of his research. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to understand at the moment is the sort of population dynamics within the T-cell memory. Memory is 鈥榚ncoded鈥� in our immune systems by different populations of memory T-cells for each infection. You can imagine that when you get a cold you鈥檙e going to be making new memory cells and one of the big questions is how are you going to manage all these different mixed populations?

鈥淵ou have memories from your vaccinations, from your encounters with colds and illnesses and you鈥檝e got to store all these in limited space. How does the immune system decide
which ones to keep and which ones to let go?鈥�

He said that mathematics was the 鈥減erfect鈥� language for expressing and understanding these cell behaviours. 鈥淢athematics can distil the highly complicated behaviours that govern these systems into very simple rules. It probably wouldn鈥檛 cross your mind when studying maths at school that one day you might use a simple equation to express a highly
complex aspect of the human immune system, but it is a very practical application of maths.鈥�

He鈥檚 looking forward to the move to the Pears Building. 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that with a greater number of researchers coalescing within the Pears Building, there will be more opportunities to interact and find new applications for our mathematical approaches and analyses. It will be a great chance for us to explore and translate our ideas into a more clinical setting.鈥�

Links

• Academic profile: Professor Ben Seddon

Image

• 'Killer T cells', Credit: