Project description:Throughout life, humans experience repeated exposure to viral antigens through infection and vaccination, resulting in the generation of diverse, and largely unique, antigen specific antibody repertoires. A paramount feature of antibodies that enables their critical contributions in counteracting recurrent and novel pathogens, and consequently fostering their utility as valuable targets for therapeutic and vaccine development, is the exquisite specificity displayed against their target antigens. Yet, there is still limited understanding of the determinants of antibody-antigen specificity, particularly as a function of antibody sequence. In recent years, experimental characterization of antibody repertoires has led to novel insights into fundamental properties of antibody sequences, but has been largely decoupled from at-scale antigen specificity analysis. Here, using the LIBRA-seq technology, we generated a large dataset mapping antibody sequence to antigen specificity for thousands of B cells, by screening the repertoires of a set of healthy individuals against twenty viral antigens representing diverse pathogens of biomedical significance. Analysis uncovered virus specific patterns in variable gene usage, gene pairing, somatic hypermutation, as well as the presence of convergent antiviral signatures across multiple individuals, including the presence of public antibody clonotypes. Notably, our results showed that, for B cell receptors originating from different individuals but leveraging an identical combination of heavy and light chain variable genes, there is a specific CDRH3/CDRL3 identity threshold that defines whether these B cells may share the same antigen specificity. This finding provides a quantifiable measure of the relationship between antibody sequence and antigen specificity and further defines experimentally grounded criteria for defining public antibody clonality. Understanding the fundamental rules of antibody-antigen interactions can lead to transformative new approaches for the development of antibody therapeutics and vaccines against current and emerging viruses.
Project description:The sequence determinants of chromatin bivalency remain unclear. We analysed sequence determinants of chromatin bivalency genome-wide in several mammalian species and performed a series of transgenic experiments in mouse ES cells. Genome-wide mapping of H3K27me3 in rat ES cells and ChIP-seq with anti-Ezh2 antibody in transgenic mouse ES cells
Project description:Cells communicate with each other via receptor-ligand interactions. Here we describe lentiviral-mediated cell e¬ntry by engineered receptor-ligand interaction (ENTER) to display ligand proteins, deliver payloads, and record receptor specificity. We optimize ENTER to decode interactions between T cell receptor (TCR)-MHC peptides, antibody-antigen, and other receptor-ligand pairs. A viral presentation strategy allows ENTER to capture interactions between B cell receptor and any antigen. We engineer ENTER to deliver genetic payloads to antigen-specific T or B cells to selectively modulate cellular behavior in mixed populations. Single-cell readout of ENTER by RNA-sequencing (ENTER-seq) enables multiplexed enumeration of antigen specificities, TCR clonality, cell-type and states of individual T cells. ENTER-seq of CMV-seropositive patient blood samples reveals the viral epitopes that drive effector memory T cell differentiation and inter- vs intra-clonal phenotypic diversity targeting the same epitope. ENTER technology enables systematic discovery of receptor specificity, linkage to cell fates, and antigen-specific cargo delivery.
Project description:Cells communicate with each other via receptor-ligand interactions. Here we describe lentiviral-mediated cell e¬ntry by engineered receptor-ligand interaction (ENTER) to display ligand proteins, deliver payloads, and record receptor specificity. We optimize ENTER to decode interactions between T cell receptor (TCR)-MHC peptides, antibody-antigen, and other receptor-ligand pairs. A viral presentation strategy allows ENTER to capture interactions between B cell receptor and any antigen. We engineer ENTER to deliver genetic payloads to antigen-specific T or B cells to selectively modulate cellular behavior in mixed populations. Single-cell readout of ENTER by RNA-sequencing (ENTER-seq) enables multiplexed enumeration of antigen specificities, TCR clonality, cell-type and states of individual T cells. ENTER-seq of CMV-seropositive patient blood samples reveals the viral epitopes that drive effector memory T cell differentiation and inter- vs intra-clonal phenotypic diversity targeting the same epitope. ENTER technology enables systematic discovery of receptor specificity, linkage to cell fates, and antigen-specific cargo delivery.
Project description:Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBc) is a structural protein that forms the viral nucleocapsid and is involved in various steps of the viral replication cycle, but its role in the pathogenesis of HBV infection is still elusive. In this study, we generated a mouse monoclonal antibody against HBc and used it in an antibody-based in situ biotinylation to identify the host proteins that interact with HBc.
Project description:RNA-guided genome editing with the CRISPR-Cas9 system has great potential for basic and clinical research, but the determinants of targeting specificity and the extent of off-target cleavage remain insufficiently understood. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq), we mapped genome-wide binding sites of catalytically inactive Cas9 (dCas9) in HEK293T cells, in combination with 12 different single guide RNAs (sgRNAs). The number of off-target sites bound by dCas9 varied from ~10 to >1,000 depending on the sgRNA. Analysis of off-target binding sites showed the importance of the PAM-proximal region of the sgRNA guiding sequence and that dCas9 binding sites are enriched in open chromatin regions. When targeted with catalytically active Cas9, some off-target binding sites had indels above background levels in a region around the ChIP-seq peak, but generally at lower rates than the on-target sites. Our results elucidate major determinants of Cas9 targeting, and we show that ChIP-seq allows unbiased detection of Cas9 binding sites genome-wide 1.sgRNA1-6 binding sites were identified with ChipSeq by using HA antibody (there are 2 replicates for sgRNA1-3, one sample for sgRNA4-6,one control without sgRNA) 2.PCR products which amplifies " off-target genomic sites" were deep sequenced in the presence of WT Cas9+sgRNA or WT Cas9 alone( unique adaptor was used for each sgRNA and mixed for multiplex run)