“The structure, dynamics and function of Adaptive Immune Receptors ”
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Date and Time
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Friday, May 9th, 2025
Location
Hybrid (Zoom and KEK CryoEM building)
Speakers:
Daron Standley, PhD
Research Institute for Microbial Diseases (RIMD), Osaka University (Professor)
Abstract
Adaptive immune receptors (AIRs) consist of B cell receptors (BCRs)—also known as antibodies in their soluble form—and T cell receptors (TCRs), which remain anchored to the plasma membrane of T cells. AIRs are unique among human proteins in that they are generated by the combinatorial assembly of genes, leading to an extraordinary diversity of expressed proteins that undergo positive and negative selection throughout our lives. The diversity is so great that any two humans typically share only a few percent of their BCRs or TCRs in a routine blood draw. In spite of this incredible diversity, different individuals respond to vaccines in much the same way within days—a remarkable example of robustness and functional convergence. I will describe one particularly interesting example of convergent responses that, unexpectedly, enhances SARS-CoV-2 infection. I will also show how BCR and TCR sequencing of peripheral blood can be used to diagnose a wide range of diseases, including infections, autoimmunity, and cancer. If time permits, I will also introduce a model of how T cells sense antigens—derived from unbiased molecular dynamics simulations and validated experimentally.
Profile
1998–2003: Schrödinger, Inc. (New York, USA) — Scientific Software Developer
Engaged in the development of scientific software, including flexible docking.
2003–2008: Osaka University, Institute for Protein Research, Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj) — Senior Researcher
Developed tools for structure-based searching at PDBj.
2008–2014: Osaka University, Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC) — Specially Appointed Associate Professor
Launched the systems immunology lab where I worked on modeling immune responses.
2014–2016: Kyoto University, Institute for Virus Research — Professor
Developed tools for high-throughput BCR and TCR modeling.
2014–Present: Osaka University, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Division of Genome Informatics — Professor
I worked in disease diagnosis using adaptive immune receptors.