# Core B - Molecular Core

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $135,056

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract – Core B 
Core B will provide two technologies for the three Projects that are difficult to import into individual laboratories. 
1) The CD4+ T cells that will studied in these Projects recognize self-peptides that have bound to a class II 
 major histocompatibility molecule (MHCII). In recent T cell research fluorescently labeled multimerized 
 MHCII molecules uniformly occupied by a single antigenic peptide (“tetramers”) have become standard 
 reagents for tracking antigen-specific T cells in vivo. However, producing these tetramers has been 
 difficult and standard protocols have not been generally available. The problem has been exacerbated 
 in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes (T1D) because the important peptide-MHCII 
 complexes often have usual, unstable conformations. Over a number of years the personnel in Core B 
 have solved many of these problems and made many homogeneous MHCII tetramers including some 
 containing the major antigens of T1D. The Core will begin by making a standard set of MHCII 
 tetramers for distribution to the three Projects. As new important peptides are discover in the courses 
 of these studies, new tetramers will be added to the Core. 
2) Understanding how the recognition of self-peptide-MHCII complexes differs from the recognition 
 conventional foreign peptide-MHCII complexes has been hampered by a limited set for detailed 
 structures of the interacting molecules. This Core begins a group with many years of experience in X- 
 ray crystallography and TCR and MHCII expression to bear on this problem. They will pursue the 
 structures of the novel peptide-MHC complexes to emerge in the three projects and of the relevant 
 TCRs bound to these complexes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9942369
- **Project number:** 5P01AI118688-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** JOHN W KAPPLER
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $135,056
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9942369

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9942369, Core B - Molecular Core (5P01AI118688-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9942369. Licensed CC0.

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