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Illuminating emergent activity in the immune system by real-time imaging

The imaging of tissues and organs as it is now practiced will seem primitive in the coming decade, yet use of this technology will define the origin of emergent activities and drive an era of system integration.

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Figure 1: The immune system is an information system.
Figure 2: Emergent activity of collections of cells revealed by real-time analysis.
Figure 3: Real-time imaging–based feedback between confirmation and study of the nature of emergent activities.

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Acknowledgements

I thank A. Gerard and P. Beemiller for critical reading of the manuscript. Supported by National Institutes of Health (AI52116), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation.

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Correspondence to Matthew F Krummel.

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Krummel, M. Illuminating emergent activity in the immune system by real-time imaging. Nat Immunol 11, 554–557 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0710-554

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