Studies of 2021

Investigation of Disease-Associated T-cell Signatures in Autoimmune/Inflammatory Disorders

Adaptive Biotechnologies

The adaptive immune system is constantly responding to stimuli; from new and chronic infections to developing autoimmune diseases and cancer. The cells of the adaptive immune system display specialized receptors, T- and B-cell receptors (TCRs and BCRs), each with unique sequences in their genome encoding their receptor. It is estimated that every individual has on the order of 100 million unique receptors in their immunome, the collection of an individuals’ receptors, making it orders of magnitude larger than the genome. The massive diversity of the immunome has the potential to recognize millions of possible disease antigens, the ability to read the responses to these antigens will enable new diagnostics, therapies and understanding of diseases.

Adaptive Biotechnologies has developed a platform for sequencing the DNA of these receptors quantitatively and at high-throughput. In partnership with Microsoft, Adaptive has developed computational methods to identify TCR signatures for individual diseases by comparing TCR repertoires from cohorts of cases and controls. The aim of this project in partnership with FINBB is to identify TCR signatures across autoimmune and inflammatory diseases to enable new diagnostics and treatments.