The Wellcome Discovery Awards scheme provides funding for researchers and teams who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding related to human life, health and wellbeing.
Antibodies are essential secreted proteins made by cells of our immune system; they bind specifically to molecules (antigens) that the body perceives as being “foreign”, such as parts of viruses and bacteria, ultimately leading to their inactivation or destruction. Our immune systems cannot know in advance what pathogens we will encounter during our lifetime. So, its solution is to generate bespoke antibodies for each new antigen it sees.
A type of white blood cell known as B lymphocytes achieves this by remoulding pre-existing antibodies from their “naïve repertoire” to better fit the new targets – a form of molecular evolution. This solution is highly effective, conferring an ability to mount responses to almost any conceivable target and allowing multiple antigenic regions to be hit in parallel – which increases the likelihood of finding the pathogen’s most vulnerable sites and reducing its options for immune escape. Using the new funding, Oliver Bannard’s team will investigate how B cells collectively make decisions about what directions to take in the antibody reshaping process – in essence, learning what determines the outcome.
Professor Bannard said:
We are thrilled to receive this Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust and are very much looking forward to getting started with the work – aiming to tackle some big questions in adaptive immunity. I am particularly grateful that Wellcome recognises that good science takes time and commits to supporting longer projects such as ours.