3141 Chestnut Street • Randell Hall, Suite 235 • Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 • TEL 215.895.6372 • FAX 215.895.2142 • www.drexel.edu/international
Gregory Schwartz Graduate School of Biomed Engr, Sci & Health – Department Keystone Symposium: The Golden Anniversary of B Cell Discovery The Keystone Symposium: The Golden Anniversary of B Cell Discovery was a large event with prominent members of the immunology field participating in full lectures, short lectures, and private discussions. I was invited to give both a short lecture and a poster presentation, both of which were very successful and resulting in many interesting questions and possible collaborations. I presented my research on how we can predict the outcome of the somatic B cell receptor repertoire from the diversity of the germline repertoire based on the by-­‐positional diversity of the receptor. This work interested many senior scientists in the field. There is a possible collaboration with this work with a group studying the response to injection of malaria as sporozoites. One interesting question to arise out of their research is the curious binding of seemingly already present memory B cells to the surface antigen which is surprisingly soon at that stage of the response. Using the tools we have generated, we might be able to see if this response is in fact due to the experience of another similar antigen.
We are also writing a manuscript on the conservation of by-­‐diversity of the receptor repertoire between individuals and there were several groups also looking at the repertoire in response to infection and autoimmune diseases. We were able to get a better idea of how to write and present this manuscript to interest all of those working on the vast diversity of the immune receptor repertoire.
The conference was a joint meeting with the HIV Vaccines conference which resulted in unexpected collaborations across fields. I was able to see a lecture on the sequences and properties of broadly neutralizing antibodies. These antibodies are found in patients with a long term infection of HIV. They are hypothesizes to have evolved with HIV in a constant battle within the host. Interestingly, these antibodies are so mutated that they have mutations within the framework regions of the structure which are normally meant to be conserved as they uphold the structural integrity of the antibody. One of our projects, which we presented at this meeting, deals with the prediction of mutations in antibodies and therefore is a perfect application of whether we can predict where these mutations occur in the framework and complementarity determining regions. Furthermore, if we can predict where these mutation appear, we would be able to provide evidence to why they are appearing at all.
3141 Chestnut Street • Randell Hall, Suite 235 • Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 • TEL 215.895.6372 • FAX 215.895.2142 • www.drexel.edu/international
This meeting was a worthwhile and successful endeavor which resulted in many ideas for our research going forward as well as our present publication writing. We are expecting many data rich collaborations to arise out of our meetings. In addition, I have found many potential locations for where I will carry out my postdoctoral research. Hopefully the projects will be a great step forward in not just the field of B cell receptor repertoires, but also in the field of HIV vaccines.