{"id":29082,"date":"2024-05-02T10:11:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/?p=29082"},"modified":"2024-05-02T10:13:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:13:45","slug":"masters-thesis-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/2024\/05\/02\/masters-thesis-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Master&#8217;s Thesis Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of thesis defender\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-29083 alignleft\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-244x300.jpg 244w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-833x1024.jpg 833w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-768x944.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-1250x1536.jpg 1250w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot-1666x2048.jpg 1666w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/files\/2024\/05\/ZitanHeadshot.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/>Zitian Zhen, a MET MSHI degree candidate defends his thesis entitled: &#8220;In Silico Prediction of C57BL\/6 Mouse T-cell Epitopes: Enhancing Immunogenicity Assessment with PREDBL6&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thesis Committee Members: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/profile\/guanglan-zhang\/\">Dr. Guanglan Zhang<\/a> (Advisor), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/profile\/12866\/\">Dr. Lou Chitkushev<\/a> (first reader) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/profile\/derin-keskin\/\">Dr. Derin Keskin<\/a> (second reader)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monday, May 13th, 2024<br \/>\n10:00am EST<br \/>\n1010 Commonwealth Ave, Room 122<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For those unable to attend in person, the thesis defense will be available through Zoom &#8211; <u><span style=\"color: #0563c1;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/metit\/edu-technology\/zoom-web-conferencing\/\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-loopstyle=\"linkonly\">http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/metit\/edu-technology\/zoom-web-conferencing\/<\/a><\/span><\/u><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p>Select \u201cComputer Science\u201d from the drop down menu.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Abstract<\/h4>\n<p>As MHC binding is considered the most selective step in T cell recognition, many existing bioinformatics systems focus on modeling this step to predict MHC binders. However, modeling MHC binding alone is insufficient for accurate immunogenicity predictions, often resulting in false positives. With the recent technological advancements, large amounts of mass spectrometry (MS)-identified MHC class I ligands became available to the public, making it possible to incorporate information from antigen processing steps before MHC binding. We collected &gt;5,000 binding peptides and &gt;4,000 eluted ligands for H2-D\u1d47, and&gt;5,000 binding peptides and &gt;5,000 eluted ligands for H2-K\u1d47. The thermostability assessment of MHC peptide binding evaluates the strength and duration of the interaction between the peptide and the MHC molecule under varying temperatures. Our collaborators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute performed temperature gradient experiments to investigate the stability of peptide-MHC complexes for H2-D\u1d47 and H2-K\u1d47 alleles under three temperature conditions, 37\u00b0C, 50\u00b0C, and 70\u00b0C, using the MS technique.\u00a0 We ended up with over 3,000 H2-D\u1d47 binding peptides and over 5,000 H2-K\u1d47 binding peptides. The data enable us to perform a comprehensive thermostability analysis of MHC binding.<\/p>\n<p>In this thesis project, we developed a computational system for identifying T-cell epitopes in C57BL\/6 mice by integrating relevant contributing factors, such as the antigen processing steps before MHC binding and thermostability, with the MHC binding predictions. Utilizing deep learning methods, we first trained and rigorously validated the binding prediction models using naturally eluted H2-K\u1d47 and H2-D\u1d47 ligands collected from public resources. Then, we built Thermostability models using proprietary data generated by our collaborators. We compared the performance of our models with that of NetMHCPan-4.1, an online prediction tool validated by many benchmark studies to be one of the most accurate predictors. Our integrated model, combining the binding and the Thermostability models, exhibited superior predictive capabilities using an external validation dataset, surpassing the overall performance of the NetMHCPan-4.1 model.\u00a0 We consolidated the models into a user-friendly web-based application named PREDBL6 to facilitate accurate predictions of immunogenic peptides that stably bind H2b molecules and stimulate immune responses in C57BL\/6 mice. To our knowledge, this is the first online T cell epitope prediction system that simulates MHC binding and considers other antigen processing steps and thermostability in a model organism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zitian Zhen, a MET MSHI degree candidate defends his thesis entitled: &#8220;In Silico Prediction of C57BL\/6 Mouse T-cell Epitopes: Enhancing Immunogenicity Assessment with PREDBL6&#8221; Thesis Committee Members: Dr. Guanglan Zhang (Advisor), Dr. Lou Chitkushev (first reader) and Dr. Derin Keskin (second reader) Monday, May 13th, 2024 10:00am EST 1010 Commonwealth Ave, Room 122 For those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10843],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29088,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions\/29088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/csmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}