%0 Journal Article
%T Meeting report: Signal transduction meets systems biology
%A Christine Louis-Dit-Sully
%A Katharina F Kubatzky
%A Jonathan A Lindquist
%A Christine Blattner
%A Ottmar Janssen
%A Wolfgang W A Schamel
%J Cell Communication and Signaling
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-811x-10-11
%X As cellular constituents of the adaptive immune system, T cells carry an individual T cell antigen receptor (TCR)/CD3 complex with which they recognize specific antigens, resulting in activation of the cell and the mounting of an immune response [1,2]. However, to initiate a successful immune response against pathogens, without creating an inappropriate response against self-antigens, T cells have to discriminate between healthy cells of the body and diseased or infected cells. It is thought that the affinity of antigens to the TCR/CD3 complex governs this discrimination during intrathymic development. In the periphery, infected and diseased cells will present specific ¡®foreign¡¯ antigens with high affinity to the TCR leading to activation of the T cell. Due to the selection process, peripheral self-antigens have low or no binding-affinity and should not result in T-cell activation, but might rather be involved in T-cell survival. If the multiple backup systems of central and peripheral tolerance fail, T cells with high affinity to self-antigens might cause autoimmunity.T-cell activation is a complex process relying on multiple layers of tightly controlled intracellular signalling modules that form an intricate network. In order to gain systems-level insight into critical modules of the network and finally into the behaviour of the complete network, the SYBILLA consortium was founded. It groups 18 partners from 9 different EU countries, including a management company (Novamen, Lyon, France; represented by Sandrine Rival in SYBILLA), and coordinated by Wolfgang Schamel (Freiburg, Germany). Detailed information can be found at http://www.sybilla-t-cell.de webcite.The current development of several ongoing projects has been reported at the meeting and will be described below. In essence, through a multidisciplinary effort, SYBILLA aims to understand at the systems level, how T-cells discriminate foreign from auto-antigens, how T cells differentiate from naive cells into
%U http://www.biosignaling.com/content/10/1/11