iRepertoire’s amplification technologies

In the first round of arm-PCR, inside and outside TCR/BCR-specific primers amplify the targets of interest, increasing sensitivity and appending communal primer binding sites

Challenges of immune repertoire sequencing The unique challenges involved with sequencing the immune repertoire have necessitated the development of repertoire-specific library preparation technologies. In order to fully capture the diversity of the immune repertoire, amplification technologies have to be used that account for biases towards small amplicons and amplifying rare clonotypes beyond the templates that…

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B cell and T cell structure and function

Structure of T cell and B cell receptors. T cell receptors are made up of two polypeptide chains that together compose one antigen binding region. B cell receptors are made up of four peptides – two light chains and two heavy chains – that comprise two antigen-binding regions.

Introduction to T cells and B cells T cell and B cell lymphocytes work together to recognize foreign substances called antigens. As the primary agents responsible for adaptive immunity, T cells and B cells are sometimes called the “special ops” of the immune system. Inherent structural features of the B and T cell receptors are…

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Diversity and differentiation in the adaptive immune system

Germline configuration of antibody gene including V(D)J segments and constant regions with zoom in on the variable region and CDR3 and diagram of fully-spliced VDJ RNA

Introduction T cell receptors (TCRs) and B cell receptors (BCRs) exhibit an astounding amount of diversity. Estimates vary widely, but theoretically, there can be as many as 1025 different receptor combinations. At any given moment, there are likely on the order of 108 different receptors in the human body. This diversity is born out of…

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The immune repertoire and adaptome

Clonotype: A particular CDR3 sequence. Repertoire: All of the clonotypes within a particular BCR or TCR chain. Adaptome: All of the repertoires for each of the 7 different chains.

Defining the immune repertoire and adaptome Each B and T cell produced by the body has only one receptor clonotype. Because the number of cells in the adaptive immune system is finite, if one clonotype expands, others will be displaced. The adaptive immune system is thus made up of a landscape of cells that fluctuate…

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