Elucidating the principles underlying B cell entry into the germinal center antibody evolution process
Investigating what determines the extent of antibody gene mutation in germinal centers
Shedding additional light on why B cells mutate their antigen receptors
Elucidating mechanisms regulating durability and breadth of antibody responses in vaccine and infection-induced immunity
Unraveling factors that can be optimized in vaccine strategies to provide maximized antibody durability and breadth against infectious diseases
Evaluate the amount of hypermutation a protein can handle
Understand factors that influence and contribute to protein mutability and tolerance
Identifying how polyreactivity in the B cell repertoire is dynamically regulated
Elucidating contributory mechanisms influencing how the microbiome regulates baseline B cell antigen receptor polyreactivity
Identifying how the primary B cell receptor repertoire contributes to immunodominance patterns
Identifying and characterizing immune operations in jawless vertebrates to gain insights into origins of adaptive immunity
Allergy and IgE
Understanding factors that make IgE production unique
Identifying where IgE is produced and how it is distributed to effector sites
Investigating how ticks can cause α-gal-related food allergy
Using a jawless vertebrate model to probe the origins of Th2 immunity
Technology Development
Developing new technology to re-engineer the germinal center to function as an automated mutation and selection platform of user-defined protein targets to user-defined ligands
