Project description
The antibody-microbiota long-term health implications in early life
Immunoglobulins (Igs) may shape the microbiota in early life, but their antigen-binding profiles are largely unknown. It is also unclear how flawed immune education contributes to allergies and how B-cell receptor sequences interact with microbiota antigens. The ERC-funded EarlyMicroAbs project will investigate how early-life immune exposures affect Igs and their long-term health implications. It hypothesises that factors such as birth method, breastfeeding duration, and antibiotic use influence Ig development. The project will profile Ig repertoires in mother-child pairs against 600 000 microbiota antigens and examine immune profiles in allergic children for associations with early Ig data. It will also investigate whether B cell receptor (BCR) sequences from different individuals bind to similar antigens.
Objective
Immunoglobulins (Igs) are thought to influence formation of the microbiota composition during a critical window of opportunity in early life. Yet, the antigen binding profiles of these Igs are vastly unknown, and it is incompletely understood how early misguided immune education contributes to the development of allergies or asthma. On an even more fundamental level, it is also unclear if or how B cell receptor (BCR) sequences of different individuals converge to binding similar microbiota antigens and how such responses form in early life.
Here, we will leverage phage display as well as novel approaches to study BCR sequence/Ig function relationships, focusing on the following objectives & research questions:
a) How do immune exposures in early life shape Ig repertoires and influence health later on?
We hypothesize that Ig repertoire development depends on the birth mode, duration of breast feeding, & antibiotics treatments. Here, we will deeply profile the Ig repertoires of mother-child dyads against 600,000 rationally selected microbiota antigens. We will also study the immune repertoires of children with allergies and mine these data sets for associations with early life Ig data sets.
b) Do BCR sequences of different individuals converge to binding similar antigens? As observed for some viral antigens, we hypothesize that also universal responses towards bacterial antigens exist and we can capture such sequences in early life. We will apply state of the art and novel proprietary methodologies to link BCR sequences with Ig binding in adults & infants.
Linking BCR sequence information with the actual antigen targets, will contribute to understanding the sequence-function relationship of Ig binding and their formation in early life. Deep profiling of mother-child dyads will provide new insights to the development of Ig repertoires. By comparing these datasets with allergic children may also reveal links between early immune education & lasting impacts on health.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology asthma
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine allergology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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1090 WIEN
Austria
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