AIRR Community Meeting II - The Antibody Society

NIH Fishers Lane Conference Center Rockville, MD, June 27-30, 2016

Organizing Committee: Jamie Scott, Tom Kepler, Chaim Schramm, Danny Douek, Lindsay Cowell, Corey Watson, Steven Kleinstein, Eline Prak, Chaim Schramm, Erick Matsen, Pam Borghardt and Felix Breden

Contact: breden@sfu.ca

Over the past few years, there has been a rapid accumulation of high-throughput sequence data characterizing adaptive immune-receptor repertoires (AIRRs). A variety of issues have arisen that are specific to this type of data, and to address them, we have held one planning meeting and one larger meeting of the AIRR community (in Sept 2014 and May 2015, respectively). Based on the consensus from the May 2015 meeting (see Report from the AIIR Community Meeting) , we formed several Working Groups to develop recommendations for: 1) a common repository for AIRR sequence data, 2) minimal standards for publishing or depositing such data, 3) resources and guidelines to support the production of AIRR sequence data, and 4) the development of statistically validated tools for analyzing such data.

We planned a second Community Meeting (AIRR-II) to address these issues and further organize the burgeoning community that is producing and using AIRR sequence data. As with our initial meetings, this meeting will bring together a diverse community: researchers sequencing antibody/B-cell receptor and T-cell receptor repertoires to profile the immune system in health and disease, industrial partners, statisticians, bioinformaticians, computer security experts, and scholars in the relevant aspects of ethics, law, and policy.

The AIRR-II Community Meeting was held 27-30 June 2016 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Fishers Lane facility. To maximize participation of the AIRR Community, the meeting was webcast with live chat. Holding the meeting at the NIH facilitated participation by interested NIH staff members (e.g., those associated with DAIDS, BD2K, dbGaP, CHAVI-ID), and by Europeans and other international researchers. As high-throughput AIRR sequence data accumulate and continue to make inroads into both biomedical research and patient care, the research community will be looking to NIH, and other national and international agencies, for support of the infrastructure and guidelines to facilitate their effective use.

We obtained additional funding to subsidize attendance by new investigators interested in this field, and those in low- and middle-income countries. Through this meeting, we provided networking and mentoring opportunities to researchers who do not have ready access to this technology.

As described in the detailed agenda below, initial recommendations developed by the Working Groups were presented on the first day, further revised by participants (including those attending virtually) during each session’s discussion period, and on the final day, voted upon by all participants. Following the meeting, the Organizing Committee (including Working Group co-leaders), and other participants, wrote a paper to convey to the larger community of scientists and other stakeholders the AIRR Community’s view of the issues advanced during the meeting, and its recommendations for resolving them.

Agenda:

Day 1, Monday, June 27th

Time	Location	Details
8:30 AM	Hilton Hotel Lobby	Working Group members will gather to walk to Fishers Lane Facility
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	Working Groups will meet concurrently and finalize recommendations
12:00 – 1:00 PM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Lunch
12:30 PM	Hilton Hotel Lobby	Conference Attendees will gather to walk to Fishers Lane Facility
1:00 – 1:15 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	Opening of meeting: Introduction of Conference Organizers, Working Group Leaders, and review of agenda
1:15 – 5:00 PM		All 3 Working Groups will convene with conference attendees to discuss recommendations from the Working Groups and Organizing Committee. (The recommendations will be returned to during the Sessions on Days 2 and 3)
		*End of Day at Fishers Lane. Attendees return to Hilton Hotel*
6:00 – 8:00 PM	Hilton Hotel	Reception and Demos: Demos of software tools for analyzing high-throughput AIRR data with emphasis on access, validation and robustness. (Cash Bar. No Government funds will be used for food and drinks)
		*Attendees are on their own for dinner*

Day 2, Tuesday, June 28th

8:00 AM	Hilton Hotel Lobby	Attendees gather to walk to Fishers Lane Facility.
8:30 – 8:45 AM	Fishers Lane Facility	Introduction to Day 2 Agenda
8:45 – 9:30 AM		*Keynote Presentation*; Steve Rosenberg, National Cancer Institute
Session 1: Organized by the Common Repository Working Group
9:30 – 11:00 AM		Presentations
9:30 – 9:55 AM		*Erica Saphire*, The Scripps Research Institute
10:00 – 10:25 AM		*John Tsang*, NIAID & Trans-NIH Center for Human Immunology
10:30 – 10:55 AM		*Bjoern Peters*, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
11:00 – 11:30 AM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Refreshment Break
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM		Community Discussion: Recommendations of the Common Repository Working Group
12:30 – 2:00 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	Boxed lunches and Poster Session I
Session 2: Organized by the Minimal Standards Working Group
2:00 – 3:30 PM		Presentations
2:00 – 2:25 PM		*Andrew Collins*, University of New South Wales
2:30 – 2:55 PM		*Christian Busse*, German Cancer Research Center
3:00 – 3:25 PM		*Sai Reddy*, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich
3:30 – 4:00 PM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Refreshment Break
4:00 – 5:00 PM		Community Discussion: Recommendations of the Minimal Standards Working Group
		*End of Day at Fishers Lane. Attendees return to Hilton Hotel*
6:00 – 8:00 PM	Hilton Hotel	Reception and Demos: Pipelines and platforms for analyzing high-throughput AIRR data with emphasis on access and sharing. (Cash Bar. No Government funds will be used for food and drinks)
		*Attendees are on their own for dinner*

Day 3, Wednesday, June 29th

Time	Location	Details
8:00 AM	Hilton Hotel Lobby	Attendees will gather to walk to Fishers Lane Facility
8:30 – 8:45 AM	Fishers Lane Facility	Introduction to Day 3 Agenda
Session 3: Organized by the AIRR Tools and Resources Working Group
8:45 – 10:15 AM		*Presentations*
8:45 – 9:10 AM		*Deborah* *Dunn-Walters*, University of Surrey
9:15 – 9:40 AM		*Mikhail Shugay*, Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry
9:45 – 10:10 AM		*Chris Vollmers*, University of California, Santa Cruz
10:15 – 10:45 AM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Refreshment Break
10:45 – 12:15 PM		Community Discussion: Recommendations of the AIRR Tools and Resources Working Group
12:15 – 1:30 PM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Boxed lunches and Poster Session II
Session 4: *The Future of AIRR Research. Organized by the AIRR Community Meeting Organizing Committee*
1:30 – 3:00 PM		*Presentations*
1:30 – 1:55 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	*Tom Kepler*, Boston University School of Medicine
2:00 – 2:25 PM		*Nick Haining*, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2:30– 2:55 PM		*Jim Crowe*, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
3:00 – 3:30 PM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Refreshment Break
3:30 – 4:25 PM		*Presentations*
3:30 – 3:55 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	*John Wilbanks*, Sage Bionetworks
4:00 – 4:25 PM		*Jan Reichert*, The Antibody Society
4:30 – 5:00 PM		Discussion of whether to form a formal AIRR Society
6:30 – 10:00 PM		Attendees convene at Carluccio’s Restaurant for dinner

Day 4, Monday, June 27th

Time	Location	Details
8:00 AM	Hilton Hotel Lobby	Attendees will gather to walk to Fishers Lane Facility
Session 5: *Finalizing Recommendations and Planning the Future of the AIRR Community*
8:30 – 9:30 AM	Fishers Lane Facility	*Report from the AIRR-Repository Working Group*. Presentation of recommendations for a Common Repository site, terms of access, policies on human subjects approvals and IP sharing, recommendations for the future of this Working Group (including future projects), and ratification of recommendations.
9:30 – 10:30 AM		*Report from the Minimal Standards for AIRR Data Working Group*. Presentation of recommendations for minimal standards for AIRR data and metadata, recommendations for the future of this Working Group (including future projects), and ratification of recommendations.
10:30 – 11:00 AM	Fishers Lane Cafeteria	Refreshment Break
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM		*Report from the AIRR Resources and Tools Working Group*. Presentation of recommendations for biologic standards, for validation tools for AIRR-data analysis software, recommendations for the future of this Working Group (including future projects), and ratification of recommendations.
12:00 – 1:00 PM	Fishers Lane Facility	*New Business: Discuss and vote on forming a formal consortium or professional society, and future issues to work on (e.g*., virtual seminar series, further “problem areas” in obtaining and/or analyzing AIRR data, suggesting research initiatives to funding agencies).
1:00 – 1:30 PM		*Review of an outline for the AIRR Community White Paper and request for participants to work on it*. Once completed, a draft copy will be made available for review, feedback, and ratification by the Community
CONCLUSION OF MEETING
2:30 – 5:30 PM		Working Group members and interested participants will meet to summarize the recommendations for each Working Group, and begin work on the White Paper.
		*Notes:* Meeting sessions will be recorded (audio & video) and broadcast live & with chat for those who cannot attend the meeting in person by means of Go-To Webinar. Virtual attendees must register for each Session that they wish to attend. Registration instructions have been emailed to the Community, and are available on the registration site. https://palladianpartners.cvent.com/AIRR2016

Tools and Resources Evening Demos Expanded Agenda