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ImmunoGrid - The European virtual human immune system project

Objective

The ImmunoGrid is an implementation of virtual human immune system using grid technologies. It can simulate immune processes at natural scale and provides tools for applications in clinical immunology and the design of vaccines and immunotherapies. The developed set of tools will be validated with experimental data and used in clinical applications for development of immunotherapies in cancer and chronic infections. Computational models are applicable because immune system is complex and has combinatorial nature, experimental approaches are expensive, and there are restrictions on the experimentation that can be performed in humans.

The ImmunoGrid project is highly relevant to the IST Call 4, its objectives, focus, and roadmaps. The target user groups are clinicians and the developers of the vaccines and immunotherapies. The ImmunoGrid applications will provide tools for clinicians and vaccine/immunotherapy developers for identification of optimal immunisation protocols. The unique component of this proposal is that it aims at connecting molecular level interactions (which regulate immune responses) with system level models (which study behaviour of the immune system as a whole). This is a novel approach to disease prevention and treatment which will help improve human health. Applications of the ImmunoGrid include modelling of the natural-size complex system on a large scale. Another important contribution of the ImmunoGrid will be the implementation of individual immune system models across the grid nodes.

This fits well into the roadmaps for research and developments in ICT for health focusing on the development of an in silico model of a human being (virtual human).ImmunoGrid will be developed by an European consortium with members from Italy, France, UK, Denmark, and France and also from Singapore. The members of the consortium are the leading experts in computational immunology whose developments have been experimentally validated.

Call for proposal

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Coordinator

CONSORZIO INTERUNIVERSITARIO PER LA GESTIONE DEL CENTRO DI CALCOLO ELETTRONICO DELL'ITALIA NORD-ORIENTALE
EU contribution
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Address
VIA MAGNANELLI 6/3
40033 CASALECCHIO DI RENO (BOLOGNA)
Italy

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Total cost
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Participants (7)