Program: Ph.D.

Advisor: Dr. Steffen Graether

Co-advisor: Dr. Stefan Keller

Research:

The adaptive immune response plays a key role in recognizing pathogens and determines health and disease in vertebrates. The protection mechanism of adaptive response is mediated by the antigen receptors (ARs) on the surface of lymphocytes. Specifically, an individual’s AR repertoire helps understand, diagnose and treat diseases. The data are from previously collected Canine immune repertoire sequencing data under normal and pathological conditions. The data analysis for this research will be confined to clustering of AR sequences (clonotypes) and a network map that displays the functional association of clonotypes within a given data set will be constructed. Finally we hope a database that integrates sequencing data from various projects based on variables such as species, disease, tissue, etc.. would be created.