BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//CERN//INDICO//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Abdus Salam Distinguished Lecture Series 2025  "Prediction in immu
 ne repertoires: learning rules in a self-organised mess" by Prof. Aleksand
 ra Walczak\, École normale supérieure\, Paris  Lecture 3: "Optimal immun
 e systems"
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250128T100000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250128T113000Z
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260807T104951Z
UID:indico-event-10924@ictp.it
DESCRIPTION:\n	The 2025 Salam Distinguished Lecture Series will feature th
 eoretical biophysicist Aleksandra Walczak.\n	 \n	Aleksandra Walczak recei
 ved her PhD in physics at the University of California\, San Diego\, worki
 ng on models of stochastic gene expression. After a graduate fellowship at
  KITP\, she was a Princeton Center for Theoretical Science Fellow\, focusi
 ng on applying information theory to signal processing. Currently she is a
  CNRS research director at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris\, interes
 ted in collective behaviour\, fly development and statistical descriptions
  of the immune system. She was awarded the “Grand Prix Jacques Herbrand 
 de l’Académie des sciences" in 2014\, the bronze medal of CNRS in 2015\
 , the American Physical Society Fellowship\, the Prix Jean Ricard of the F
 rench Physics Society in 2021 and the silver medal of CNRS in 2024.\n	 \n
 	The Salam Distinguished Lecture Series is an annual presentation of talks
  by renowned\, active scientists. The aim is to showcase important researc
 h developments as well as provide a visionary forward view. The lecture se
 ries is generously supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement 
 of Sciences (KFAS). The overarching title of the three talks will be: "Pre
 diction in immune repertoires: learning rules in a self-organised mess"\n	
  Abstract:\n	Immune repertoires provide a unique fingerprint reflecting t
 he immune history of individuals\, with potential applications in precisio
 n medicine. Can this information be used to identify a person uniquely? If
  it really is a personalised medical record\, can it inform us about the o
 utcomes of a COVID-19 infection? I will show how even a system as complica
 ted as the immune system has reproducible outcomes. Yet predicting the fut
 ure state of a complex environment requires weighing the trust in new obse
 rvations against prior experiences. In this light\, I will present a view 
 of the adaptive immune system as a dynamic Bayesian machinery that updates
  its memory repertoire by balancing evidence from new pathogen encounters 
 against past experience of infection to predict and prepare for future thr
 eats. I will then attempt to connect data to phenotypic models of evolutio
 n and show how the evolution of pathogens is constrained by selection pres
 sures coming from immune systems. Together\, I will present examples of ho
 w statistical analysis described immune repertoires on different scales.\n
 	 \n	There will be 3 lectures with the following titles:\n	 Lecture 1: H
 ow personalised is your immune repertoire? \n	Monday\, 27 January 2025 sta
 rting at 11:00 hrs\n	 Lecture 2:  Viral—immune co-evolution\n	Monday\,
  27 January 2025 starting at 14:00 hrsLight refreshments will be served af
 ter the talk.\n	 Lecture 3: Optimal immune systems \n	Tuesday\, 28 Januar
 y 2025 starting at 11:00 hrs\n	 \n	 \n	The three lectures will take plac
 e in ICTP's Budinich Lecture Hall.\n	 \n	 \n	All are welcome to attend. 
 The lectures will also be livestreamed at www.ictp.it/livestream.\n\n//ind
 ico.ictp.it/event/10924/
LOCATION:ICTP Leonardo Building - Budinich Lecture Hall
URL://indico.ictp.it/event/10924/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR