Dissecting the antibody-OME: past, present, and future

Abstract

Humoral immunity is key to protection for nearly all licensed vaccines. Yet, the design of vaccines has been more difficult for some of our most deadly killers (e.g. HIV, influenza, Dengue virus, etc.), likely due to our incomplete understanding of the precise immunological mechanisms associated with protection. Humoral immunity is governed both by B-cells and their bi-functional secreted antibodies, all of which have a unique capacity to evolve during an immune response. Current OMIC technologies capture individual features of the humoral immune response, providing a glimpse into humoral components (Fab/Fc/B-cell-omic), but fail to provide a wholistic view of the humoral response as a collective functional arm. Here, we dissect current OMIC strategies reviewing experimental and computational approaches, that if integrated could provide a true systems-level view of the humoral immune response.