Public Data Commons

Atypical B cells (atBCs) have been identified as key mediators of inflammation in autoimmune disease and chronic infection, but there is a dearth of knowledge concerning their contributions to chronic inflammatory diseases like asthma and atherosclerosis. My project is focused on elucidating the role of atBCs in chronic inflammatory diseases, with a particular focus on the relationship between proinflammatory atBC subsets and the severity of obstruction in severe asthma. We analyze B cells in the peripheral blood of human subjects using high dimensional spectral flow cytometry and apply unsupervised machine learning methods to link B cell subsets and soluble factors in serum to clinical metrics of disease. In doing so we will gain a better understanding of how atypical B cells contribute to dysregulated inflammatory processes and identify new targets for asthma therapy.