Optimizing human B cell repertoire analyses to interpret clinical data and design sequential HIV vaccines

Milton Maciel Jr; Lindsey R Baden; Brian Briney; Nicole A Doria-Rose; Kasalina N Kiwanuka; Shelly J Krebs; Angela Malaspina; Georgia D Tomaras; Andrew Ward; Gunilla B Karlsson Hedestam; Wilton B Williams; M Patricia D'Souza

doi:10.1038/s41541-025-01168-z

Optimizing human B cell repertoire analyses to interpret clinical data and design sequential HIV vaccines

NPJ Vaccines. 2025 Jul 17;10(1):157. doi: 10.1038/s41541-025-01168-z.

Authors

Milton Maciel Jr¹, Lindsey R Baden², Brian Briney^{3

4

5

6}, Nicole A Doria-Rose⁷, Kasalina N Kiwanuka¹, Shelly J Krebs⁸, Angela Malaspina¹, Georgia D Tomaras⁹, Andrew Ward^{3

4

5

6}, Gunilla B Karlsson Hedestam¹⁰, Wilton B Williams¹¹, M Patricia D'Souza¹²

Affiliations

¹ Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.
² Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁴ IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁵ Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁷ Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁸ Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
⁹ Center for Human Systems Immunology, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Departments of Surgery and Integrative Immunobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
¹¹ Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Departments of Surgery and Integrative Immunobiology, Duke School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
¹² Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA. pdsouza@niaid.nih.gov.

Abstract

Advances in HIV vaccine development focus on eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) through next-generation immunogens. Human trials are testing these candidates for their ability to initiate B cell maturation. This workshop report reviews emerging data and methods for analyzing B cell repertoires, highlighting strategies to streamline these labor-intensive processes. The goal is to enable timely, cost-effective design of sequential immunization regimens that induce potent, protective bNAbs against HIV.

Grants and funding

UM1 AI069412/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States