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Abstract
If we define computation as the transformation, according to defined rules,
of input data into output data, then we should conclude that the immune
system computes: the input to the immune system is the state of the body
and the output of the immune system is the healing process (the
inflammatory response) that maintains a healthy body. In this sense the
immune system is a computation machine that transforms body-state data into
immune-system data that, simultaneously, feeds back on the body to modify
its state and restore body health. The difference between the
physiologically regulated inflammatory response that keeps us healthy and
the dysregulated or chronic inflammatory response that can make us ill lies
in the dynamics and fidelity of the computations performed by the immune
system - the cells and molecules that mediate inflammation, both healthy
and noxious inflammation, are exactly the same. I shall describe our use
of microarray technology and informatics to develop an antigen chip capable
of detecting global patterns of autoantibodies binding to hundreds of
self-molecules simultaneously. The patterns fashion diagnostic signatures
for particular autoimmune diseases, for degenerative diseases and for
cancer among others. The antigen chip microarray provides a novel and
informative look at immune computation and its medical applications.
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