The immune system is one of the most complex systems consisting of more than a billion unique receptors on T-cells, B-cells and even other cell types. As such, our success in comprehending immunological reactions can greatly benefit from computer science. I made this presentation at the First Young Kenyan Scientists meeting in held at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Nairobi, Kenya.

1. Informatics of Immunity

2. Immunity: Defense against Disease A cancer cell under attack by T cells of the immune system Cancer cell killed

4. Immunology as a Convergence of Sciences

5. From Genomics to Immunomics

6. What does the Future Hold??

7. Immune system is Complex and Diverse

8. Different Tissues

9. Different Cells, Defense Mechanisms

10. Extensive Receptor Diversity

11. Role of Informatics

12. Key Questions in Vaccine Design Which immune response should the vaccine elicit? - T-helper cell mediated immunity - Cytotoxic T cell mediated immunity - Humoral immune responses

13. Prediction of B-cell Epitopes Recognized by antibodies Linear B- cell Epitopes Conformational B-cell Epitopes

15. T-cell epitopes are linear and short (8-11 amino acids for class I, slightly more for class II)

17. In silico Vaccine Discovery A wide range of software are available How do you choose the best? - Prediction accuracy - HLA allele population coverage - Promiscousepitope prediction - T-cell epitope Hotspots - Conserved epitope prediction

18. Databases

21. Other Resources