Immunology today. Three historical perspectives under three theoretical horizons

The fil rouge of this book is that immunology is a highly developed and sophisticated discipline, with a long tradition of theoretical debates, that once again can be the forerunner to test some of the most urgent questions in biology and medicine. Accordingly, most of the contributions shared the premise that a historical perspective is essential not only to interpret the available results but also for the immunology of the next future. The contributions articulate the historical dimension into three different levels: a) The History of Immunology as a (central) tool which can help to improve our epistemological awareness of disciplinary problems (part I); b) The History of the Immune System as an evolutionary point of view, essential to understand its present status and developmental processes (part II); c) The “Immunological Biography”, i.e. immunological history at the individual level (part III). Most importantly, these three historical dimensions explain and are explained by three different theoretical horizons, viz. Degenerated/Bow-tied Architecture, Systems Biology, Ecoimmunology. The book’s essays invite readers to explore how these historical and conceptual levels of analysis could work together to provide a unified view of the emerging trends of today’s immunology. Together with the huge computational power available in many labs and with the help of bioinformaticians and mathematicians we are confident that a new era is coming and that immunology (like many other sciences) will be re-visited and re-written according to these new systemic approaches.