Vertebrate cells sample short peptides from endogenous proteins, and present them to the immune system via MHC class I molecules on the cell surface. T-cells scan the presented peptides and need to discriminate foreign (nonself) peptides from host (self) peptides. We develop bioinformatics methods that can be used to identify antigenic regions in basically any genome; these methods explained more in detail in Research.

We apply these methods to:

• Study the evolution of antigen presentation and processing pathways.
• Study co-evolution of host and its pathogen using HIV-1 as a model system
• Genetic associations of infectious diseases,
• Identification of neo-antigens (mutated self antigens that are developed during cancer)
• Improve organ transplantation when a full matched donor is not available.