This contract supports highly interactive, multi-disciplinary teams, whose research efforts are focused on large-scale discovery of T cell immune epitopes, validation of these epitopes, and defining their role in immune protection or immune-mediated pathogenesis in humans. Milestones include: 1) epitope identification; 2) in vitro epitope validation studies with primary human T cells to demonstrate the immunogenicity/antigenicity or diagnostic potential of all newly defined T cell epitopes shown to bind to classical or non-classical MHC molecules; and 3) submission of all epitope information and computer software to the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource to facilitate access and use of the data and tools by the broader research community.
