ABSTRACT
The complexity of the immune system is comparable to that of the nervous system. Both systems are comprised of a large number of different cell types communicating via the production of stimulatory or inhibitory molecules. Immune network theory postulates that the functioning of the immune system is based upon network interactions. The assumption is that the lymphocyte clones comprising the immune system are capable of activating and/or inhibiting each other. In biology, cellular automaton (CA) models have been used to study spatial processes in general. The states of a binary CA, that is, an automaton with black/white, on/off, or one/zero states, can be stored in bitplanes. The enormous recruitment of novel clones from the bone marrow is one of the most salient characteristics of the immune system. An elegant concept for the modeling of the immune network is the "shape space". One of the main properties of most CAs is their synchronicity or parallelism.
