VDJServer

VDJ Server

Lindsay Cowell, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

In jawed vertebrates, the genes encoding antibodies (Ab) and antigen receptors (AR) are somatically generated in lymphocytes through a DNA recombination process. In B lymphocytes, the genes are further diversified through gene conversion (e.g. in chickens and rabbits) or somatic hypermutation (SHM) (e.g. in mice and humans). As a result of these processes, each individual has millions of unique Ab and AR genes, although some lymphocytes in an individual will contain identical genes as a result of cell proliferation. The development of specific immunity and the ability to mount an effective immune response rely on the presence of a diverse repertoire of Ab and AR genes and on the shifting of repertoire composition in response to immunological events. Analysis of repertoire composition is thus applied in a wide variety of basic research, research and development, and clinical contexts. Despite the widespread importance of repertoire analysis, there is no public repository for repertoire sequence data, and no suite of analysis tools designed for use by bench biologists and clinicians. We are developing VDJServer, a web-accessible data management infrastructure and suite of interoperable repertoire analysis tools.