Part of the prestigious Novartis Foundation series, this title focuses on the new topic of ‘phenomics’, which is the use of genomic and bioinformatic techniques to characterize complex phenotypic systems, such as the immune system. 

Contributors to this book explore existing strategies and examine possible new strategies for using the genome sequences of human, mouse, other vertebrates and human pathogens to solve outstanding problems in the treatment of immunological diseases and chronic infections. The assembled genome sequences now provide important opportunities for solving these problems, but the bottleneck is to identify key sequences and circuits controlling the relevant immune reactions. This requires innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative strategies of a scale and complexity we are only now beginning to comprehend.

Some of the specific problems addressed are:

1. What kinds of information are we missing to understand how the genome sequence specifies the differentiation and response of immune system cells and system behaviour, such as immunological memory and tolerance?
2. Which genome sequences and cellular circuits cause or prevent pathological immune responses to foreign pathogens, allergens or self-tissues?
3. Which host and pathogen genome sequences and cellular circuits explain the failure of neutralizing immune responses to sophisticated human pathogens, such as the agents of tuberculosis, malaria, metazoan parasites and chronic viruses?

This book is an invaluable resource for researchers in both industry and academia performing either basic or clinical research in the disciplines of genomics and bioinformatics, immunology, microbiology and virology, cell and mole...