Matthew D. Scharff

My laboratory is studying how antibody-forming cells respond to antigen by undergoing somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination so that they can produce higher affinity antibodies with more useful effector functions. The molecular and biochemical mechanisms of antibody variable region hypermutation and class switch recombination is being studied in mice that have mutations in various repair proteins. In order to examine detailed molecular mechanisms, we are also studying how mutation is targeted to antibody genes and some oncogenes in human Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines which are undergoing variable region mutation in culture. These cell lines and genetically defective mice are being used to study the role of activation induced deaminase (AID), mismatch repair and error prone polymerases in the variable region hypermutation and isotype switching. The analysis of these events also involves the examination of AID activity biochemically and computationally by analyzing the human antibody response in vivo using mutation data bases. I also the supervise a Hybridoma Facility that helps investigators throughout the institution to make their own monoclonal antibodies.