Antigen-specific humoral immune responses by CRISPR/Cas9-edited B cells

Antigen-specific humoral immune responses by CRISPR/Cas9-edited B cells

Speaker: Harald Hartweger, The Rockefeller University

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to HIV are protective against infection in animal models. However, a number of highly unusual features of bNAbs have hampered their elicitation by traditional immunization. We show that mature, primary mouse and human B cells can be edited in vitro using CRISPR/Cas9 to express mature bNAbs from the endogenous Igh locus and retain the ability to participate in humoral immune responses. Immunization with cognate antigen in wild type mouse recipients of edited B cells elicits bNAb titers associated with protection against infection. This approach enables humoral immune responses that may be difficult to elicit by traditional immunization.

Speaker bio:

Harald is originally from Austria. After studying molecular biology at the University of Graz and working on TLR signalling in macrophages and dendritic cells he finished his master’s degree at the University of Vienna and then embarked on a PhD with Victor Tybulewicz here in London at the former National Institute for Medical Research now the Francis Crick Institute. There he studied several proteins involved in both BCR and TCR signalling.

For his postdoctoral training, he moved to the laboratory of Michel Nussenzweig at the Rockefeller University in New York City where he is currently developing B cell-based immunotherapies in particular for HIV.