Our group works on developing and applying theoretical and computational approaches (rooted in statistical mechanics) to study complex systems involving many interacting components. A central focus of our laboratory is understanding the adaptive immune response to pathogens. We are studying how T cells "hunt" for antigen as they migrate in lymphoid tissue, the molecular processes that enable them to discriminate between "self" and "non-self" with extraordinary sensitivity, and the signaling events that ultimately enable T cell activation and the mounting of an immune response. We are also investigating the misregulation of these processes as in autoimmune disorders. (more)