This started in 2019 as daydreamy PhD student musings with Tatsuya Araki. We're as excited as ever about germinal centers as a platform for experimental evolution. Many thanks to PIs @victora.bsky.social @matsen.bsky.social, co-1st authors Ashni Vora and Tatsuya, and many other key collaborators!

Replaying germinal center evolution on a quantified affinity landscape

Antibody affinity maturation results from a somatic evolutionary process that takes place in the germinal center. A “parallel replay” experiment on germinal center B cells reveals the evolutionary for...

cell.com

Read our latest preprint. A window into GC clonal evolution upon boost.

Gabriel Victora@victora.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Happy to share our latest preprint on the clonal dynamics of GC “refueling.” We asked what happens at the clonal level after the simple (and ubiquitous) step of delivering a second vaccine dose during an ongoing GC response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy to share our latest preprint on the clonal dynamics of GC “refueling.” We asked what happens at the clonal level after the simple (and ubiquitous) step of delivering a second vaccine dose during an ongoing GC response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

One more trick pulled off by antibody-mediated feedback www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

Antibody-mediated feedback modulates interclonal competition in the germinal center

Antibodies generated by prior immune responses regulate B cell responses upon recall immunization. Barbulescu et al. examine whether antibodies produced by an ongoing immune response influence the out...

cell.com

I am excited to share that our work, in which we have dissected the signals driven by the nucleoside-modified mRNA and LNP components of mRNA vaccines that regulate germinal center (GC) responses, is now published in Cell! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Distinct components of mRNA vaccines cooperate to instruct efficient germinal center responses

This study dissects the individual contributions of the different components of mRNA vaccines to immune responses. Nucleoside-modified mRNA promotes the production of type I interferons that act on de...

cell.com

Check out our latest preprint on the effects of antibody-mediated feedback on ongoing germinal center reactions, led by Alex Barbulescu and @janabilanovic.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Antibody-mediated feedback modulates interclonal competition in the germinal center

Serum antibodies from prior immune responses regulate B cell activation and germinal center (GC) access upon recall immunization. However, how antibodies produced by an ongoing immune response influen...

biorxiv.org

I'm stoked to have this long-term and highly collaborative effort out in the wild. We present an experimental evolution system to quantitatively study the rapid evolutionary dynamics of B-cell affinity maturation. These evolutionary mechanisms underpin antibody responses and immune memory formation.

Gabriel Victora@victora.bsky.social · last yr.

Wanted to highlight our latest preprint--a huge effort by multiple people and labs, but led primarily by @wsdewitt.github.io, Tatsuya Araki, and Ashni Vora, in a very close wet-dry collaboration with @matsen.bsky.social’s lab at the Hutch www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Wanted to highlight our latest preprint--a huge effort by multiple people and labs, but led primarily by @wsdewitt.github.io, Tatsuya Araki, and Ashni Vora, in a very close wet-dry collaboration with @matsen.bsky.social’s lab at the Hutch www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Replaying germinal center evolution on a quantified affinity landscape

Darwinian evolution of immunoglobulin genes within germinal centers (GC) underlies the progressive increase in antibody affinity following antigen exposure. Whereas the mechanics of how competition be...

biorxiv.org

Happy #DayofImmunology! Congrats @ramadhenni.bsky.social & Alexandra Carey Hoppé it's out (finally!) @cp-cell.bsky.social! Incredibly grateful to co-leads @mlmunier.bsky.social, Vanessa Venturi & Tony Kelleher & all brilliant folks @garvaninstitute.bsky.social & Kirby Inst. for fantastic collab! 🧵

Macrophages direct location-dependent recall of B cell memory to vaccination

Vaccines generate long-lived plasma cells and memory B cells (Bmems) that may re-enter secondary germinal centers (GCs) to further mutate their B cell…

sciencedirect.com

Hi, we are looking for two motivated postdocs to join our group! job-boards.greenhouse.io/chanzuckerbe... job-boards.greenhouse.io/chanzuckerbe...

Research Scholar, T cell Tissue Adaptation and Residency (Parsa Group - Biohub NY)

New York, New York, United States

job-boards.greenhouse.io

How can B cells rapidly proliferate and have mutations suppressed? A longstanding mystery solved involving transient mutation suppression capability of germinal centers nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Regulated somatic hypermutation enhances antibody affinity maturation - Nature

Germinal centre B cells modify their mutation rate to preserve high-affinity receptors, thereby safeguarding high-affinity B cell lineages and enhancing the outcomes of antibody affinity maturation.

nature.com

New imaging from @victora.bsky.social's lab reveals a built-in safeguard that allows B cell populations to rapidly expand in germinal centers without introducing deleterious mutations. #RockefellerScience

New mechanism behind adaptive immunity revealed. It could impact how we design vaccines. - News

Germinal centers are high-speed evolution machines. Tiny clusters in the lymph nodes, germinal centers refine antibodies through mutation and expansion until they produce high-affinity B cells adapted...

rockefeller.edu

Cool germinal center acrobatics from Juhee Pae et al, check it out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ICYMI by First release - now in print @science.org Identification of APCs in the gut that promote Treg differentiation and how tolerance to food antigens is influenced by helminth infection. buff.ly/3DjNQ1e By @cicacanesso.bsky.social @danmucida.bsky.social @victora.bsky.social et al

#Immunology by first release now @science.org Plasma cells producing high-affinity antibodies dominate the plasma cell population through increased proliferation. https://buff.ly/3BzpLmL By Andrew MacLean, Michel Nussenzweig et al.

#Immunology by First release now @science.org Identification of APCs in the gut that promote Treg differentiation and how tolerance to food antigens is influenced by helminth infection https://buff.ly/3DjNQ1e By Maria Canesso, @danmucida.bsky.social , @victora.bsky.social and colleagues.

We are looking for a Research Assistant! Come and build a great science team with me! #STEMjobs #ImmunoSky job-boards.greenhouse.io/chanzuckerbe...

Research Associate - Parsa Group

New York, New York, United States

job-boards.greenhouse.io

Check out our last pub. from @mfgrp.bsky.social al lab! We discovered that skin commensal microbes induce systemic and local B cell responses upon colonization and took advantage of this knowledge to create topical vaccines using engineered skin microbes. Please read the thread for details.

Michael Fischbach@mfgrp.bsky.social · 2y ago

Today we report that an engineered skin bacterium, swabbed gently on the head of a mouse, can unleash a potent antibody response against a pathogen. Could lead to topical vaccines that are applied in a cream. @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social led the charge... @natureportfolio.bsky.social 1/55

Today we report that an engineered skin bacterium, swabbed gently on the head of a mouse, can unleash a potent antibody response against a pathogen. Could lead to topical vaccines that are applied in a cream. @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social led the charge... @natureportfolio.bsky.social 1/55

I’ve tried to put together a starter pack of immunologists/scientists exploring B Cell Repertoires and Antibody Affinities. Please feel free to share/join! go.bsky.app/4P64DmM

Time for a reset...let's go! go.bsky.app/8avwjYw

Friends, it's fun to see the #immunology community continue to grow! I created a 4th Starter Pack to help folks find each other. If you're an immunologist and you don't see yourself on the lists, let me know 🧪 go.bsky.app/PY5tCas go.bsky.app/FmERUoD go.bsky.app/6aT6qDS go.bsky.app/QSEPDoj

Rod Rahimi@rodrahimi.bsky.social · 2y ago

Friends, the second #immunology starter pack filled in 3 days! I started a third to help folks new to BlueSky rebuild their network Below are the links If you're an immunologist and I have missed you so far, let me know 🧪 go.bsky.app/PY5tCas go.bsky.app/FmERUoD go.bsky.app/6aT6qDS