The immune system is highly complex and distributed throughout the organism, with hundreds of cellular states existing in parallel with different molecular pathways that interact in a highly dynamic and coordinated manner. Today, large-scale, high-throughput, and high-resolution multiple omics technologies are creating opportunities to complement traditional immunological approaches with new insights.
Fig.1 Technological developments in immunology. (Bonaguro, L., et al., 2022)
Genomics technologies are essential to identify genetic alterations that are major drivers of the human immune phenotype.
The most commonly used technologies include whole-genome sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS), and genotyping microarrays, which are used in immunogenetic studies to enable researchers to discover the genetic components involved in the regulation and function of the immune system.
RNA sequencing is the gold standard for unbiased genome-wide assessment of gene expression at
the population level, allowing researchers to understand the behavior of immune cells and their
responses to various stimuli.
Microarrays use complementary oligonucleotide probes to perform quantitative gene expression
measurements on defined genomes.
Transcriptomics technologies are integral to immunomics analysis because they help elucidate the function of the immune system at the molecular level.
In addition to genomes and transcriptomes, epigenomes can also be interrogated using omics techniques.
Epigenomics-based immunome analysis provides insight into the role of gene expression regulation and epigenetic modifications in shaping the immune response, facilitating the identification of diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. These technologies include chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) for studying protein-DNA interactions, bisulfite sequencing for studying DNA methylation, and ATAC-seq for open-ended sequencing of chromatin.
In particular, proteomics technologies are the main pillar for the discovery of biomarkers for multiple diseases and for understanding the mechanisms of immune response to multiple diseases. Antibody microarrays and peptide microarrays are preferred for immunomics discovery to identify immune-related markers and to study the overall adaptive immune response to specific diseases.
Continued advances in proteomics technologies associated with bioinformatics programs provide important tools for expanding knowledge and molecular tools of the immune system.
Single-cell omics is the analysis of individual cells by sequencing and other technologies.
Notably, single-cell genomics is a breakthrough approach to analyzing the genomic and transcriptomic profiles of individual immune cells. This technology provides a detailed understanding of intercellular variability and reveals diversity within immune cell populations, leading to a deeper understanding of the immune response during disease development.
CD Genomics consists of a group of experts in the study of the immune system, high-throughput omics and data analysis. Moreover, our experimental platforms are equipped with advanced devices to ensure reliable immunomics analysis for our clients.
