Scientists, including a mathematician at Maynooth University, have used a combination of data to make a significant advance in our understanding of how the immune system works and how it may be manipulated.
It is hoped that in the long-term the research may help predict the level of risk of auto-immune disease in certain patients, and how they can best be treated.
The international team used a combination of lab data and statistical, mathematical and computer modelling to figure out how the scale of the immune system is controlled by the body.
As a result, they were able to predict the response of immune cells to infection and disease.
The work was carried out by a team including applied mathematician Professor Ken Duffy, and Professor Philip Hodgkin's biomedical research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia.
Their research, which has been published in the journal Science, will assist understanding of how manipulating both good and bad immune responses can be used in innovative therapies to improve the health of those suffering from diseases such as certain cancers.
In particular, the team used the modelling to understand how external signals impact the proliferation of infection fighting T-cells.
"If T cells are responding to a vaccine, for example, greater division can result in a more aggressive and protective immune response," Professor Duffy said in a statement.
"As a result of our research we are able to predict the size of an immune system's response upon coming under attack from a flu virus, for example, based on the sum of certain indicators received by the flu-responsive T cells.
"T cells are important for launching specific immune responses against invading microbes, as well as eliminating some cancer cells.
"Errors in the control of T cells can lead to harmful 'autoimmune' responses that attack the body's own tissues, the underlying cause of diseases including Type 1 Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis."
