Adaptive threshold-stochastic resonance (AT-SR) in MHC clusters on the cell surface

•Intuitive-phenomenological model of immune-recognition has been elaborated based on the Stochastic Resonance (SR) – noise assysted signal detection of weak signals – phenomenon.•Nonself-peptide is considered as the weak signal to be amplified, and the self-peptide is considered as an athermal noise boosting detection of noself-peptide.•SR is extended with the notion of „adaptive threshold” to explain self-nonself discrimination.•SR serves also as a basis for frequency encoding transmembrane signaling by the MHC clusters and the T-cell receptor (TcR).•We also suggest interpreting other transmembrane signaling phenomena in the framework of SR, and give recipes for identifying SR in lipid rafts on the cell surface with biophysical tools like FRET, fluorescence anisotropy, and patch-clamping.