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Zooming into the Community III Starts Tomorrow!

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Join us tomorrow for our 10th Anniversary AIRR-C online event!

📢 This virtual two-day meeting marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of the AIRR Community. Join us for a celebration of the AIRR Community and two scientific sessions on “Specificity.”

⚠️ Service announcement: Each registration day is independent, with its own unique Zoom link! If you’d like to attend both days, make sure to register for each day separately to receive both Zoom links. Just joining for one day? No problem – simply register for your chosen day to get the correct link!

Register here: May 21 Link and May 22 Link

Final agenda:

 

New episode of the On AIRR podcast is here!

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In this episode of On AIRR, we welcome Dr. Bjoern Peters, Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, to discuss the crucial role of high-quality data in AI-driven immunological predictions and diagnostics.

Dr. Peters shares his journey from theoretical physics to MHC-binding prediction, leading to his work on the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) — the world’s largest resource for immune epitope data. He highlights how good data often outcompete algorithmic improvements and discusses the challenges of data standardization in immunology. The conversation also delves into epitope prediction, AIRR sequencing for diagnostics, and the need for rigorous model validation in clinical applications.

Listen now via your favorite podcast platform or here: http://onairr.airr-community.org. New episodes will be released monthly.

 

Season 3 of On AIRR is here!

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We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Season 3 of On AIRR, the official podcast of the AIRR Community. This season kicks off with an insightful discussion featuring Dr. Thierry Mora and Dr. Aleksandra Walczak —  co-leaders of the Statistical Biophysics Group at Laboratoire de physique de l’ENS (LPENS) in Paris, France.

Dr. Mora and Dr. Walczak, physicists by training, have been pioneers in applying biophysics, neuroscience, and information theory methods to the analysis of the adaptive immune system, particularly in the context of V(D)J recombination. In this episode, they discuss the challenges of quantifying diversity within the immune repertoire and provide an overview of the powerful software tools developed by their group.

Listen now via your favorite podcast platform or here: http://onairr.airr-community.org. New episodes will be released monthly.

Monday, June 3rd is the Big Day!

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AIRR-C Meeting VII – Learnings and Perspectives is starting this Monday, June 3rd, at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, in Porto, Portugal. This meeting is the regular main event of the AIRR Community and allows participants (both in-person and virtual)to enjoy a variety of scientific presentations, discussions, and poster sessions to stay up-to-date with the most recent developments in the field. It is also a great opportunity to engage with colleagues and industry sponsors, and to help early career researchers such as graduate students and post-docs learn more about possible opportunities. A huge thank you to all our sponsors who make this event possible. Your support is invaluable and greatly appreciated!

Check out the full agenda and more details on the meeting page: https://tinyurl.com/airrcmeeting7.

Use the hashtag #AIRRC7 in social media to follow and share content about AIRR-C Meeting VII.

AIRR Community Meeting VII 2024 Sponsors Infographic

Improve your BCR sequencing analysis with refined IG reference germline sets

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An important aspect of the adaptive immune receptor repertoire analysis is the identification of the V, D, and J genes contributing to the rearranged sequences. Often, the identification of the specific genes requires the use of a reference set of known immune receptor allelic germline variants. Since early meetings of the Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire Community (AIRR-C), members of the community have expressed the need to have access to germline sets open to everybody (including industry) that didn’t present known issues in the available germline sets such as different nomenclatures and the requirement of buying licenses. In February 2024, the Germline Database Working Group (GLDB WG) published the manuscript “AIRR-C IG Reference Sets: curated sets of immunoglobulin heavy and light chain germline genes” introducing the AIRR-C human immunoglobulin germline gene reference. This reference is available for download at OGRDB and also available for use in IgBLAST. The AIRR-C IG Reference Sets follow the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and require a minimally restricted licence.

In episode 15 of the On AIRR podcast, Dr. William Lees (researcher at University of London and co-leader of the GLDB WG) and Dr. Corey Watson (associate professor at the University of Louisville) explain in detail the context and expectations of this effort, a major achievement of the group. Watson highlights the impressive effort that it has been for the community to get on the same page, and reach a consensus that could be materialized in these new reference sets, all during a time where the field has matured and evolved in multiple levels. “It has taken us a lot to think how to build a system that is able to accommodate all the elements and also be responsive to changes in the future. We have established a foundation that we can use to build on top of”, Watson says. Good traceability and reproducibility were also requirements from the community. In that sense, Lees explains that “the sets are free to use, can be downloaded through a REST API, they also have a DOI number, so every time a set changes, we create a new DOI, so it is a good reference to put in a paper”.

If you want to learn about the recent innovations and challenges in the generation, curation and analysis of antibody/B-cell and T-cell receptor repertoire data, and in particular in the development and use of germline resources, don’t miss the “AIRR-C Challenge Session: Using IG and TR germline resources for advancing immunobiology” in the upcoming hybrid “AIRR Community Meeting VII – Learnings and Perspectives”.