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# The Danger Model: A Renewed Sense of Self

## Details

**Authors** Matzinger, Polly

**Year** 2002

**Publisher** Science

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Medicine

**Secondary disciplines** Biology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1071059) 
10.1126/science.1071059

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To argue that the self/nonself model on which immunology has rested for decades should be replaced by a model in which the immune system responds to danger.

### How they did it (methods)

Theoretical review and argument drawing on published immunological findings.

### What they found (results)

The author argues that the immune system responds more to entities that cause damage than to entities that are merely foreign, so that the distinction the system acts on is danger versus no danger rather than self versus nonself.

## Commentary

### In short

A theoretical paper proposing that immune responses are triggered by signs of tissue damage rather than by the foreignness of an antigen.

### Response

The paper replaces one boundary (self/nonself) with another (danger/no danger) as the criterion the immune system draws, which is a distinction-level claim. It also locates the trigger in signals from the surrounding tissue, so what counts as a threat depends on the tissue's position and state, a partial fit with perspectives. The fit to systems and relationships is plausible (tissue and immune cells interacting) but was not assessed from the full text, and the abstract was only partially available, so these are not claimed.

**Patterns it shows** D, P

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-10-26

**How to cite this** Matzinger, Polly (2002). The Danger Model: A Renewed Sense of Self. Science.