IMMUNOLOGY2026™ Conference Recordings For Attendees-Studying humoral immune learning by exploring and exploiting analogies to how machines learn

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The talk explained how B cells learn in germinal centers through mutation, antigen capture, competition, and selection, leading to improved antibodies and immune memory over time. It then focused on a key puzzle from COVID-19 vaccination: why a third dose of the same Wuhan-based vaccine improved protection against Omicron. The speaker argued that feedback loops in immunity help shift responses toward subdominant epitopes that remain effective against mutated variants. These feedbacks include increased antigen display on follicular dendritic cells after repeated vaccination and epitope masking by antibodies, which changes which B cells survive.<br /><br />The speaker also described earlier work showing that spreading the same vaccine dose over several days can produce a much stronger and more diverse immune response than a single bolus dose. This idea has progressed from physics-based models to animal studies and even early clinical results.<br /><br />A major theme was combining physics-based immune models with AI, especially reinforcement learning, to predict optimal vaccination strategies, including possible use of passive antibody administration. The speaker suggested this approach could help design better vaccines and immune interventions for variable pathogens and possibly other diseases. The Q&A touched on transplant immunology, antigen specificity, masking mechanisms, and the limits and promise of data-driven immune modeling.

Meta Tag

Date April 17, 2026 4:50 PM - 5:10 PM

Room 156

Session Resource Highlight: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Research

Speaker Arup Chakraborty

Track Computational and Systems Immunology (COMP)

Year 2026

Keywords

germinal centers

B cells

antibody maturation

COVID-19 vaccination

Omicron

immune feedback loops

reinforcement learning

vaccine optimization

April 17, 2026 4:50 PM - 5:10 PM

156

Resource Highlight: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Research

Arup Chakraborty

Computational and Systems Immunology (COMP)

2026