Systems Immunology: Origins

Fifteen years ago, human immunology was stagnating compared with the rapid pace of work with inbred mice. There was a desperate need for new strategies and methods that would allow us to leverage the advantages of immunology research in humans: the genetic and environmental diversity, the thousands of infectious diseases, and responses to clinically deployed treatments and vaccines. Development of the much-needed approaches led to a new field, systems immunology, with its emphasis on gathering as much information as possible from human blood samples, focusing on the cells and cytokines of the immune system, and organizing studies of vaccine responses in different human cohorts, including twins, the elderly, and children in high versus low pathogen environments. These types of studies have grown exponentially over the years, with great advances in technology and analysis, and have become an important way to understand the vast differences in human responses and what they...