Modelling the immune system: The case of situated cellular agents

The immune system (IS) represents the defence mechanism of higher level organisms to micro organismic threats. It is a very complex system, genuinely distributed and providing mechanisms of adaptation to unknown threats by means of the interaction among the heterogenous autonomous entities it is composed of. The most relevant features of the overall system, such as learning capabilities and the possibility to tackle unknown threats in any part of the body, are a consequence of these interactions. This paper describes how a Multi-Agent approach, and more precisely the situated cellular agents (SCA) model, can be applied to represent specific elements and mechanisms of the IS. After a brief description of the IS, a brief overview of possible modelling approaches will be given, then the SCA model will be introduced and exploited to model some elements and mechanisms of the IS. This work is one of the results of an interdisciplinary research that has involved immunologists of the Advanced Biotechnology Center of Genova and computer scientists of the University of Milan-Bicocca. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006