Bioinformatics Commons^™

A Mechanistic And Genomic Analysis Of Molluscum Contagiosum Virus Immune Evasion, Ian Benjamin Harvey

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is a common human-specific poxvirus with a proclivity for

infecting children and the immune-compromised. A characteristic MCV infection is restricted to

the epidermal layers of the skin and can persist for weeks to years in an otherwise healthy

individual. The high clinical burden of MCV is at odds with our limited knowledge regarding how

it successfully evades the human immune response, which is in part due to the lack of an animal

model or cell line to propagate the virus. Through this dissertation, we have uncovered and

characterized a novel mechanism by which MC80, a protein …

Sequence Analysis Methods For The Design Of Cancer Vaccines That Target Tumor-Specific Mutant Antigens (Neoantigens), Jasreet Hundal

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The human adaptive immune system is programmed to distinguish between self and non-self proteins and if trained to recognize markers unique to a cancer, it may be possible to stimulate the selective destruction of cancer cells. Therapeutic cancer vaccines aim to boost the immune system by selectively increasing the population of T cells specifically targeted to the tumor-unique antigens, thereby initiating cancer cell death.. In the past, this approach has primarily focused on targeted selection of ‘shared’ tumor antigens, found across many patients. The advent of massively parallel sequencing and specialized analytical approaches has enabled more efficient characterization of tumor-specific …

Understanding The Interactions Of Developing Thymocytes And Antigen Presenting Cells In The Thymic Medulla, Justin Shaun Arnold Perry

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various thymic APC subsets have been invoked in deletional tolerance and Treg cell induction, but previous studies either assessed total T cell numbers or used TCR transgenic lines, obscuring roles that individual thymic APC subsets might serve for particular antigen-specific T cell populations. Utilizing T cell receptor sequencing, we found that medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) and bone marrow-derived (BM) APCs delete or select unique conventional and Treg cell TCR repertoires, demonstrating distinct roles for these APCs. We show that BM APCs and mTECs each contribute to Aire-dependent T cell tolerance development, albeit through either cooperative or autologous antigen presentation …