Computational Analysis of B-Cell Receptor (BCR) Immune Repertoires with Abalign

Area of Science:

• Immunoinformatics
• Computational Biology
• Genomics

Background:

• High-throughput sequencing generates vast B-cell receptor (BCR) immune repertoire data.
• Computational analysis of BCR repertoires is crucial for immunotherapy and precision medicine.
• Understanding immune responses and disease associations requires BCR repertoire analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a cohesive, step-by-step workflow for analyzing BCR immune repertoires using the Abalign software.
• To detail software installation, data preparation, and comprehensive BCR repertoire analysis.
• To facilitate efficient acquisition of insights into immune responses and related diseases.

Main Methods:

• Development and presentation of Abalign, a BCR-specific multiple sequence alignment (MSA) software.
• Integration of Abalign's analysis modules into a user-friendly graphical interface workflow.
• Provision of detailed protocols for BCR immune repertoire analysis, including lineage tree construction and mutation profiling.

Main Results:

• Abalign offers ultra-fast MSA and diverse analytical features for BCR repertoires.
• The Abalign workflow allows comprehensive analysis without programming skills.
• The software facilitates insights into infectious diseases, allergies, autoimmune disorders, tumor immunology, and antibody drugs.

Conclusions:

• Abalign provides an efficient and accessible platform for BCR immune repertoire analysis.
• The presented workflow empowers researchers to gain deeper insights into immune dynamics.
• Abalign supports advancements in immunodiagnostics, drug development, and understanding immune-related diseases.