Diverse human diseases have been proposed to involve or require environmental factors for their onset or propagation. Examples include type-1 diabetes, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, preeclampsia, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, narcolepsy, autism and many others. Despite much effort, the identification of such environmental factors or �triggers� has rarely been demonstrated. Nevertheless, the immune system responds to and archives environmental exposures in the form of immunological memory � a process wherein molecules evolved to recognize the environmental factor(s) and their encoding DNA persist in long-lived �memory� cells. However, the identification of molecules from the archive (i.e., immune repertoire) that are associated with a particular disease has proven exceptionally difficult.  Parallel advances in biomolecular discovery and engineering methods, genomics and sequencing, and separation technology are creating major opportunities to define and tune human immune repertoires.  In particular, our ability to define the functions of B-cells and the antibodies they produce using advanced separation processes is poised to transform diagnostic and therapeutic medicine.  The ongoing evolution and refinement of biomolecular discovery technologies will fuel the discovery of biomarkers for hundreds of diseases, the development of safe and effective, precision-targeted therapeutics, and the elucidation of origins of diseases that burden society.

Decoding human immunity for diagnostic and therapeutic development

247th National Meeting (2014)

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