Diversity in the antibody repertoire is essential for the immune system to efficiently recognize a broad spectrum of invading pathogens. However, random gene modification reactions may produce autoantibodies which must be tightly regulated during B cell development to avoid autoimmunity. To determine how frequently self-reactive B cells develop in humans and where and when during B cell development and differentiation self-tolerance checkpoints are associated with autoimmunity we have developed a very efficient and unbiased RT-PCR based approach to clone antibodies expressed by single human B cells. Novel data on self-reactive antibodies in infection and on the role of germinal center reactions for the development of autoimmunity will be discussed.
Hedda Wardemann (born in 1973) is Junior Research Group Leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin. She received her PhD in 2001 at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology. In 2002 she started her postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University in New York, USA, where she focused her interest on B cell tolerance in humans and was promoted Assistant Professsor in 2003. Her main research interests include the development of autoantibodies, the regulation of developing autoantibodies in healthy humans and patients with autoimmune disease, and the association between the antibody response to infection and autoimmunity.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Barbara M. Bröker