HoChan Cheon

Short description of my project:

The immune system is mediated by two essential lymphocytes (white blood cells): B- and T- cells, protecting the human body against infections. Thus, by understanding the behaviour of B- and T- cells, it will benefit not only in therapeutic development such as immunotherapy but also in refining the diagnostic tools, for instance, for immunodeficient/autoimmune patients.

Lymphocytes must first receive a stimulatory signal that binds to their cell surface receptor. These signals activate the lymphocytes, like the “on switch”, to proliferate and differentiate into the effector cells – initiating an immune response. Conversely, inhibitory signals can inactivate the immune response like the “off switch”. To investigate the population dynamics of cells, it is vital to understand the cellular modules such as the time a lymphocyte takes to divide, to die, and to return to a quiescent state (division destiny). Therefore, using probabilistic methods, the current project aims to develop a mathematical model to quantitatively integrate these independent signals. For the purpose of this study, these signals are treated as timers which are initiated at cell formation.