Julia Merkenschlager co-leads Nature study on B cell mutation strategies

Branco Weiss Fellow Julia Merkenschlager is co-first author of a new study published in Nature that sheds light on how the immune system fine-tunes its antibody response to infection and vaccination. Conducted during her time at The Rockefeller University, the research uncovers how high-affinity B cells can temporarily halt their mutation process and proliferate instead – preserving advantageous mutations rather than risking their loss through further genetic changes.

The findings challenge long-standing assumptions about the role of hypermutation in antibody evolution and may have important implications for the design of future vaccines, particularly those targeting highly mutable viruses such as HIV.

The study was led by Michel C. Nussenzweig’s Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and carried out in collaboration with theoretical physicists at Princeton University. Julia Merkenschlager is now Assistant Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School.

Read the paper in Nature

Read the news on the Rockefeller University website