Immunome
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The immunome is the set of genes that code for proteins which constitute the immune system, excluding those that are widespread in other cell types, and not involved in the immune response itself.[1][2] It is further defined as the set of peptides derived from the proteome that interact with the immune system.[3] There are numerous ongoing efforts to characterize and sequence the immunomes of humans, mice, and elements of non-human primates. Typically, immunomes are studied using immunofluorescence microscopy to determine the presence and activity of immune-related enzymes and pathways.[4] Practical applications for studying the immunome include vaccines, therapeutic proteins, and further treatment of other diseases.[3][5] The study of the immunome falls under the field of immunomics.
The word immunome is a portmanteau of the words "immune" and "chromosome." See omics for a further discussion.
History
The exact size of the human immunome has been a topic of study for decades.[6] However, the amount of information it encodes is said to exceed the size of the human genome by several orders of magnitude due to, at least in part, somatic hypermutation and junctional diversity.[7][8] Several efforts are attempting to characterize the immunomes of humans and other species.[9][10][11][12]
The Human Immunome Program is a major effort, launched in 2016, as a collaborative project between The Human Vaccines Project, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Illumina, Inc.[9] Its goal is to decipher the complete collection of human B and T immune cell receptors.[13] Thousands of individuals will be studied, representing the range of age, gender, ethnicity, geographical origin, health status, and vaccination status.[9] The results will be shared as an open-source database.[14] The sequencing project will continue until unique sequences stop appearing within B and T cell receptors and is expected to take ten years.[15]
The Immunological Genome Project's stated goal is to characterize the immunome of the mouse, generating "a complete microarray dissection of gene expression and its regulation in the immune system". This project is intended to function as a primary resource. The project engages more than 20 research labs, studying T cells, B cells, and dendritic cells, along with many other cell types. The project began in 2008.[10]
Non-human primate immunomes are studied because of their genetic similarity to humans.[11][12]
In 2025, the Mal-ID project first sequenced B (BCR) and T cell receptors (TCR) at scale across multiple diagnoses using three machine learning models, achieving an area under the receiver operative characteristic curve value of 0.986.[16]
Methods of study
In order to gain useful knowledge about the immunome and its characteristics, the cells and components of the immune system must be phenotyped in a quick and pragmatic manner. There are hundreds of known cell types within the immune system and the possibility of detecting and characterizing them without the use of recent advances in immunophenotyping technology was remote because large amounts of an individual's blood would have been required. This outdated method is called low-dimensional immunophenotyping. However, high-dimensional immunophenotyping is now a possibility. The types of high-dimensional immunophenotyping can be broadly grouped into two categories: the use of isotopes of lanthanide and the use of fluorophores. These advanced technologies allow for up to 100 parameters to be measured at one time.[4]