ACE configurator for ELISpot: optimizing combinatorial design of pooled ELISpot assays with an epitope similarity model.

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot) assay is a powerful in vitro immunoassay that enables cost-effective quantification of antigen-specific T-cell reactivity. It is used widely in the context of cancer and infectious diseases to validate the immunogenicity of predicted epitopes. While technological advances have kept pace with the demand for increased throughput, efforts to increase scale are bottlenecked by current assay design and deconvolution methods, which have remained largely unchanged.

LENS: Landscape of Effective Neoantigens Software.

Motivation: Elimination of cancer cells by T cells is a critical mechanism of anti-tumor immunity and cancer immunotherapy response. T cells recognize cancer cells by engagement of T cell receptors with peptide epitopes presented by major histocompatibility complex molecules on the cancer cell surface. Peptide epitopes can be derived from antigen proteins coded for by multiple genomic sources.

Landscape and selection of vaccine epitopes in SARS-CoV-2.

Background: Early in the pandemic, we designed a SARS-CoV-2 peptide vaccine containing epitope regions optimized for concurrent B cell, CD4 T cell, and CD8 T cell stimulation. The rationale for this design was to drive both humoral and cellular immunity with high specificity while avoiding undesired effects such as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).

Methods: We explored the set of computationally predicted SARS-CoV-2 HLA-I and HLA-II ligands, examining protein source, concurrent human/murine coverage, and population coverage.