Simple Vaccine Simulation

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  Immune Cells reacting to a vaccine

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  Killer T cells after being activated and multiplying

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  Killer T cell inspecting an infected cell

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  Tissue-resident Memory T cells

Inspiration

Kurzgesagt immune system videos

What it does

This is a simulation on how the immune system reacts a viral infection, as well as demonstrating the role of vaccines on how they help prepare the immune system for an infection in the future. Square epithelial cells are infected by viruses and release cytokines, attracting the attention of immune cells. Macrophages swallow viruses out in the open and release more cytokines when spotting viruses. Dendritic cells collect samples of virus antigens and deliver them to the lymph nodes. It takes a while for them to reach the lymph nodes, though, depictive of real life. Killer T cells, when activated, multiply themselves and hunt down infected cells, preventing them from spreading the infection any further. After the infection, some of them turn into memory cells, making you practically immune to further infections. Vaccines add a bunch of virus antigens to the system, tricking your immune system into the immune response and creating the same memory cells as before. This way, when the actual virus arrives, you are already immune to it.

How I built it

I began by creating classes for Rooms, MobileCells, and WallCells. Rooms connect to one another and contain cells, alongside particles like viruses. Objects only interact with things in the same room, which improves performance while sacrificing some accuracy.

Challenges we ran into

I ran into a lot of syntax and logic errors, being new to Javascript. One of the most interesting things I learned was that switch statement cases did not count as separate blocks, which caused some issues with initializing block variables.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is the first full-blown Javascript project that I have completed successfully and with few bugs along the way. I felt like I was in full control of what I was adding to each room, what the cells were doing, etc.

What we learned

I learned a lot of things, including the switch statement case drama I was talking about earlier. I also learned about using braces to make a code block regardless of keywords, the way object references are handled, the fact that two arrays of the same value don't match in an equality boolean, etc.

What's next for Simple Vaccine Simulation

The fun in making these models has become a lot more obvious now, especially since I am better at handling errors and organizing my code. I might expand the Immune System Simulations to add more immune cells and more rooms, or to simply employ more scenarios. Coding Neutrophils will be fun... hee...

Built With

• html5
• javascript