The Experimental Immunology Group
The Laboratory of Experimental Immunology (LEI) strives to understand the peptide-specific, MHC-restricted nature of T cell recognition. Our interests focus on antigen presentation to T cells, and in particular on the interaction between peptides and MHC class I and II molecules.
LEI believes that the future ability of any scientist and/or clinician to rapidly screen entire genomes /transcriptomes, proteomes etc, multiple pathogen isolates and include all human immune diversity (that is human MHC, or HLA) will provide an entirely new approach to the development of vaccines and immunotherapy.
We have launched the "human MHC project" (http://pubmed.gov/10322158, http://pubmed.gov/12361091), which aims at a complete mapping of all human MHC specificities. We have systematically worked to include all human MHC molecules. Recently, we have also used the experience gained from the human project to address MHC molecules in important animal species.
Our research projects include:
- A complete analysis of the T cell epitopes induced by Yellow Fever virus vaccination
- A complete analysis of T cell epitopes induced by cytomegalovirus infection (in particular by CMV IE1 and IE2 molecules)
- A complete analysis of the specificity of human MHC class I and II molecules
- A complete analysis of the stability of human MHC class I and II molecules
- Generation of predictors covering the peptide-binding specificity and stability of all human MHC molecules
- Development of efficient methods to analyze MHC class I and II restricted T cells responses
- Development of efficient methods to generate MHC class I and II tetramers
- Generation of reversible peptide-MHC multimers for the purification of human T cells for clinical use
- Development of similar resources to address animal MHC molecules and T cell responses
- Development of methods to clone individual T cell receptors and analyze their specificity
- Development of a peptide microarray-based approach to analyze T and B cell specificity
- To handle the diversity of the MHC we have developed efficient recombinant technologies for MHC production and purification (http://pubmed.gov/11592075, http://pubmed.gov/12592025).
- To generate examples on how MHC molecules work, we have developed faster and more versatile assays for measuring peptide-MHC interactions (http://pubmed.gov/7537104, http://pubmed.gov/12135423, http://pubmed.gov/19196700).
- To generate complete representation of how MHC molecules work, we introduced the use of positional scanning combinatorial peptide libraries enabling a rapid and complete analysis of MHC specificity (http://pubmed.gov/8765039).
- To predict the complicated peptide-MHC interaction we have used neural networks (or artificial intelligence) to capture the pattern recognizing aspect of peptide-MHC interaction (http://pubmed.gov/11556965, http://pubmed.gov/14617044) including an intelligent approach to sample the universe of peptides (http://pubmed.gov/14617044) and of MHC (http://pubmed.gov/18604266).
- The enormous amount of data and tools generated have recently been included in an international database of immune epitopes (http://pubmed.gov/15895191, http://pubmed.gov/15760272, http://pubmed.gov/16789818)
- To enumerate specific T cells, we have developed methods to generate MHC class I and II tetramers (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18301755, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24023895)
- To identify and validate class I and II restricted T cell epitopes, we have examined immune responses against viruses such as CMV, EBV and Yellow Fever virus.
Laboratory of Experimental Immunology
Department of Immunology and Microbiology
University of Copenhagen - Panum Institute
Blegdamsvej 3 - Maersk Tower 07.17.38
DK-2200 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Contact person
Professor Søren Buus
Group members
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buus, Anette Stryhn | Associate Professor | +4535327884 | |
| Buus, Søren | Professor | +4535327885 | |
| Ghanizada, Mustafa | Research Assistant | ||
| Kløverpris, Henrik Nyhus | Associate Professor | +4535337466 | |
| Nielsen, Lotte | Laboratory Technician | +4535337421 | |
| Ossowicki, Marie Louise | Laboratory Technician Trainee | +4535326167 | |
| Rahbek, Josefine | Research Assistant | +4535335021 | |
| Schmiegelow, Anne Caroline | Laboratory Technician | +4535336196 | |
| Thaarup, Pauline Christine | Laboratory Technician Trainee | +4535333565 | |
| Velgaard, Susanne | Laboratory Technician | +4535333514 | |
| Østerbye, Thomas | Special Consultant | +4535337416 |