Systems Immunology

Research Interests

Theoretical and mathematical biology, with special focus on dynamical and organizational issues in the physiology of the immune system.
Bridging theorists and experimentalists in respect to the relationship between healthy immune activity and autoimmune disease.
Problems arising on the extent developmental and adult animal physiology can be articulated with current evolution theory.
The organisation of the living and its immediate environment and their mutual, but assymetric, dependency. The possibility to develop a mathematical language (perhaps based on cathegory theory?) that allows to capture that organization and describe the unique properties of biological entities, complementary to the current mathematical language of physics.

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We collaborate also very close with the Theoretical Immunology Group

Group Members

Research Project

Mechanisms involved in the germinal center reaction: a biomathematical and experimental approach.

Affinity maturation of the humoral immune response and memory B lymphocyte generation relies on dynamically structured, short-lived organules so-called germinal centres (GC). Yet, their dynamics is an open problem in immunology. GCs are derived from primary follicles after Ag-activated B cells expand in a T cell-dependent fashion at their basal end. GC B cells undergo extensive proliferation, somatic mutation, massive cell death and Ag-driven selection, and differentiation into memory B cells. The present study aims to clarify their rise-and-fall dynamics by assessing four potential driving mechanisms. A mathematical modelling strategy is being developed in order to derive experimentally testable predictions that can discriminate between the different postulated mechanisms.

Collaborators

University of Vigo, Spain
We are collaborating with Prof. Dr. África González-Fernández at the University of Vigo, Spain on the project of modeling Germinal Center reactions.

Publications

León, K., Faro, J., Lage, A. and Carneiro, J. (2004). Inverse Correlation between the Incidences of Autoimmune Disease and Infection Predicted by a Model of T cell mediated Tolerance. J. Autoimmun., 22 :31-42

Faro, J., Velasco, S., González-Fernández, A and Bandeira, A. (2004). The Impact of Thymic Antigen Diversity on the Size of the Selected T-cell Repertoire. J. Immunol. 172 :2247-2255

León, K., Faro, J., and Carneiro, J. (2004). A General Mathematical Framework to Model Generation Structure in a Population of Asynchronously Dividing Cells. JTB :(in press)

Bandeira, A. and Faro, J. (2003). Quantitative constraints on the scope of negative selection: Robustness and weaknesses. Trends Immunol. 24 :172-173

Velasco, S. and Faro, J. (1998). Manual de técnicas experimentales en termodinámica. Col. Libros Prácticos, 1 Ediciones Univ. Salamanca, Salamanca (Spain).

Faro, J., Carneiro, J. and Velasco, S. (1997). Further studies on the problem of immune network modeling. J. Theor. Biol. 184 :405-421

Faro, J. and Velasco, S. (1997). An approximation for prey-predator models with time delay. Physica D. 110 :313-322

Faro, J. and Carneiro, J. (1996). A Commentary on Cohn's Reply. Scand. J. Immunol. 43 :6-7

Carneiro, J., Coutinho, A., Faro, J. and Stewart, J. (1996). A model of the Immune Network with B-T cell co-operation. I - Prototypical structures and dynamics. J. Theor. Biol. 182 :513-529

Faro, J. and Carneiro, J. (1995). The two-signal model and 'self'-reactivity: Are they really incompatible? Scand. J. Immunol. 41 :519-522

Faro, J. and Velasco, S. (1994). Numerical analysis of a model of ligand-induced B cell antigen-receptor clustering. Implications for simple models of B cell activation in an immune network. J. Theor. Biol. 167 :45-53

Faro, J. and Velasco, S. (1993). Studies on a certain class of network models of the immune system. J. Theor. Biol. 164 :271-290

Faro, J. and Velasco, S. (1993). Crosslinking of membrane-immunoglobulins and B cell activation: a simple model based on percolation theory. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 254 :139-145

Andreu-Sánchez, J.L., Faro, J., Alonso, J.M., Paige, C.J., Martínez-A, C. and Marcos, M.A.R. (1990). Ontogenic characterization of thymic B lymphocytes. Analysis in different mouse strains. Eur. J. Immunol. 20 :1767-1773

Faro, J., Marcos, M.A.R., Andreu, J.L., Martínez-A., C. and Coutinho, A. (1990). Inside the thymus, MLS antigen is exclusively presented by B lymphocytes. Res. Immunol 141 :723-737

Faro, J., Clinchy, B., Höidén, I. and Möller, G. (1989). Capping and co-capping of membrane immunoglobulin and lipid-conjugated immunoglobulin inserted in the cell membrane of B lymphocytes. Scand. J. Immunol 30 :435-440

Marcos, M.A.R., Andreu, J.L., Alonso, J.M., Faro, J., Toribio, M.L. and Martínez-A, C. (1989). Physiological significance of Thymic B lymphocytes. An appraisal. Res. Immunol 140 :275-279

Coutinho, A., Grandien, A., Faro-Rivas, J. and Mota-Santos, T.A. (1988). Idiotypes, Tailors and Networks. Ann. Immunol. (Inst. Pasteur) 139 :599-607

Faro, J., Seoane, R.,Lareo, I., Eiras, A., Couceiro, J. and Regueiro B.J. (1987). Immunoresponses to Neisseria meningitidis epitopes: immunomodulation by meningococcus B acts on more than one meningococcal surface epitope. Med. Microbiol. Immunol., 176 :131-141

Faro, J., Seoane, R., Eiras, A., Lareo, I., Schiller, M. and Regueiro, B.J. (1987). Immunoresponses to Neisseria meningitidis epitopes: in vivo analysis of immunocompetent cells involved in suppression of secondary response to phosphorylcholine. Med. Microbiol. Immunol., 176 :289-303

Faro, J. (1986). Modulación meningocócica de la respuesta inmunitaria a epitopos de Neisseria meningitidis. Ed. Universidad de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela (Spain). (B)

Seoane, R., Faro, J., Eiras, A., Lareo, I., Couceiro, J. and Regueiro B.J. (1986). Effects of antigen and internal environment on anti-phosphorylcholine immune responses of autoimmune aged NZB/W F1 mice. Immunology 58 :329-334

Faro, J., Seoane, R., Puentes, E., Ubeira, F.M. and Regueiro. B.J. (1985). Immunoresponses to Neisseria meningitidis epitopes: primary versus secondary antiphosphorylcholine responses. Infect. Immun. 48 :428-432