1. TCR and BCR repertoire in Chiroptera
During my master's course, I undertook a project involving genome annotation and the analysis of new species' TCR repertoires. Bats, being unique in their ability to coexist with a wide array of viruses and pathogens, present a fascinating case for studying adaptive immune responses to invasive antigens, about which little is currently known. My initial task involved annotating bat TCR loci from genomic data(ZHOU, 2021). This allowed us to establish a reference library for analyzing raw data using MiXCR. Subsequently, I collected spleen samples from bats for TCR sequencing. This led to a comparative study of the TCR repertoire's basic features between bats and model species such as humans and mice, marking the first exploration into the immunological characteristics of Chiroptera(ZHOU, 2023).
2. Annotation of adaptive immune receptor gene in eutherian genomes
After joining Daron's lab, I began collaborating with Professor Kazutaka Katoh, inspired by my prior research experiences. Recognizing the limitations of manual annotation—its time-consuming nature and the challenge of identifying all potential genes—my current project focuses on developing a tool or methodology for annotating adaptive immune genes across the genomes of different species. This project combines conventional methods, such as local alignment, with advanced machine learning algorithms to achieve more precise predictions.