Scott Steil

Evolutionary & Swarm Design

The human body is a stable and optimal environment in which our native cells may thrive. These biological conditions also create an excellent breeding ground for viruses and bacteria that continuously threaten to infiltrate our body. Fortunately for us, our immune system is naturally capable of defending against these invading cells without threatening to inflict harm to our own cells. Despite technological advances we are still unable to explain all processes carried out by the immune system. Interdisciplinary research has opened new pathways in bioinformatics, enabling the use of computers as a research tool in order to perform ‘virtual experiments’ that can be easily reproduced and closely examined. I am examining the processes of the human immune system by creating a computer simulation of it. This simulation reflects the actions of individual entities that participate in the immune system and those entities’ interactions with each other and their environment. Like any swarm model, I am taking time and space to be a crucial element in demonstrating an emergent behavior, which (in this case) is immunity. Accompanying this model of an immune system is the evolutionary development of it. By examining the components involved while evolving this simulation to adapt to some stipulations, it may provide some insight into the importance of these components in the human immune system.