BATS

Date/Time:

Feb 15, 2019 - 12:00 PM

Location:

Hosts:

Bevin Engelward

Speaker:

Title:

An Unbiased Determination of Class II MHC Peptide Repertoires via Yeast-displayed Libraries

Abstract:

CD4+ ‘helper’ T cell function relies upon T cell receptor recognition of peptides displayed by class II MHCs. Algorithms developed to predict which peptides can bind to class II MHCs – and therefore be recognized by CD4+ T cells – suffer from significant inaccuracies due to a lack of diverse high-quality peptide data. Here, we present a yeast-displayed platform to screen large unbiased peptide libraries for binding to multiple class II alleles, discovering peptide binding motifs that can significantly improve current prediction algorithms.

Speaker:

Title:

Massively Parallel Screening of Synthetic Microbial Communities

Abstract:

Microbes are diverse and abundant, engaging in sophisticated community-level processes that transcend the capabilities of single strains. Our understanding of the rules that govern microbial interactions and the emergence of exploitable properties like pathogen suppression remains nascent. We’ve developed a platform called the kChip to rapidly construct thousands of parallel microbial communities. We use the kChip to uncover community assembly rules and to discover optimal consortia fulfilling criteria of interest.