Human Immunome Program

The Human Immunome Program is a large-scale, open-source effort seeking to fill a major gap in our knowledge of the immune system. The power of the immune system to fight disease lies in its ability recognize and adapt to an astonishing range of threats from viruses, parasites and bacteria to cancer cells. Underlying this ability is a vast but specific set of genes and molecular structures known as the human immunome, or the "parts list" of the immune system. This study aims to decipher the genetic sequences that make up this part list and link it to information about a person's microbiome composition and characteristics such as health history, race, and demographics over time. This information, made freely available to the public for use in research in de-identified form, will allow investigators to answer a wide variety of different questions about immune system function. This could transform how we diagnose, prevent and treat disease though the identification of new biomarkers while enabling highly targeted, computationally designed vaccines and therapies that reduce time and risk of product development.