California State University, Fresno Foundation

Published purpose

A key component of the immune system of higher organisms are antibodies. Antibodies function to bind and eliminate infections. In addition to their natural immune system function, antibodies have emerged as a powerful type of drug to treat a variety of disease from cancer to the Ebola virus. While in the majority of vertebrates, antibodies consist of two protein chains (a heavy and light chain), there are three cases where antibodies have evolved to consist only of a heavy chain. These heavy-chain only antibodies are found in the camel family, two evolutionary branches of cartilaginous fishes. While the antibodies from camel and the elasmobranch (sharks) have been well characterized, to date, there has been no investigation into the heavy chain antibodies found in the holocephalin branch of cartilaginous fish. The goal of this project is to examine the atomic structure of holocephalin heavy-chain antibodies alone and in complex with the proteins which they bind. The structures will then be compared to camel and other mammal antibodies to determine if there are unique ways in which the holocephalin antibodies bind their targets.