Simons Workshop on                                  Nonequilibrium Physics in Biology                 Stony Brook, 5 December 2018

Affinity maturation of antibodies and the puzzle of HIV low spike density

         Assaf Amitai               Shenshen Wang           Arup K. Chakraborty

Mehran Kardar (MIT)

Outline

I.       Introduction: B cells, Antibodies, Antigens, and the puzzle of low HIV spike density                                    

II.      Affinity Maturation: Germinal Center, Rapid evolution of antibodies, Firsher and Price equations

III.      Fitness & Evolution: Competition for virus capture and proliferation signal from helper T cells

IV.     Optimal density for eliciting potent antibodies, and implications for nanoparticle vaccination & HIV spikes

V.      Summary

Next (Introduction) Outline Introduction Affinity Maturation Fitness & Evolution Optimal density Summary