LC-MS technology and its applications

摘要

The present invention relates to an improved LCMS technology and its uses in methods for the selective identification and characterization of immunogenic pathogen associated epitopes, and the use thereof in vaccine development. One way of bridging the knowledge gap on T cell epitopes is to apply a new platform technology, ''immunoproteomics'', to directly assess the epitope display at the surface of antigen presenting cells by nanoscale mass spectrometry of extracted peptide samples. This is the only methodology that can provide unbiased insight into epitope features such as the exact molecular nature, diversity, abundance, dynamics and PTM of T cell epitopes originating from pathogen-derived proteins. Therefore, this platform technology and immunoproteomics should become an intrinsic part of vaccinology.