Human Immune Monitoring Core

The Immune Monitoring and Data Management Core (IMDMC) will be responsible for sample processing and banking, comprehensive and standardized immune monitoring of those samples, and archiving and organization of data generated. Sample processing and banking will be performed through the Stanford Biobank, using well-developed systems and standard operating procedures (SOPs). The Stanford Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC) will perform highly comprehensive assays of immune phenotype and function on both pre-existing and newly collected samples. These will include standardized O-Link cytokine arrays, CyTOF immunophenotyping, phosphosignaling flow cytometry, HLA typing, whole blood gene expression, and hemagglutinin inhibition (HAI)assays; as well as new data types including microbiome, metabolomics, methylation, TCR sequencing, ATACseq on sorted cells, single cell gene expression via BD Rhapsody, flu antigen arrays, and antibody glycosylation analysis. Quality control measures will be performed on all assays, and data uploaded and organized via an existing online database, Stanford Data Miner (SDM). SDM will allow integration with existing data, across assays, and with clinical and demographic data. It will facilitate access by all associated investigators, as well as extraction for upload to the public ImmPort database. Relevance: The IMDMC will provide access to a suite of comprehensive, state-of-the-art immune assays, which have already been applied to many existing samples. This unmatched set of samples, technologies, and aggregated data will facilitate the discovery of new metrics and mechanisms of immune aging, vaccine responsiveness, and many other avenues of research