A computational model of degeneracy in a lymph node

Abstract

This paper highlights degeneracy as being an important property in both the immune system and biology in general. From this, degeneracy is chosen as a candidate to inspire artificial immune systems. As a first step in exploiting the power of degeneracy, we follow the conceptual framework approach and build an abstract computational model in order to understand the properties of degenerate detectors free of any application bias. The model we build is based on the activation of TH cell in the lymph node, as lymph nodes are the sites in the body where the adaptive immune response to foreign antigen in the lymph are activated. The model contains APC, antigen and TH cell agents that move and interact in a 2-dirnensional cellular space. The TH cell agent receptors are assumed to be degenerate and their response to different antigen agents is measured. Initial observations and results of our model are presented and highlight; some of the possibilities of degenerate detector recognition. © Springer-Verlng Berlin Heidelberg 2000.