The Shepherd Group

Research Summary

Our research focuses on the following topics:

Developing resources to support the analysis of immunoglobulin (IG) genomic information, notably OGRDB and, in collaboration with Gur Yaari's lab (Bar Ilan University), VDJbase.
Using deep learning to aid the interpretation of adaptive immune repertoire data
Using molecular dynamics simulations to model antibody/antigen binding and viral entry machinery (notably that of hepatitis C virus)
Making predictions at the boundary between self and non-self that aid the stratification of patient responses to viral pathogens, therapeutic proteins and tumour antigens.

Various members of The AIRR (Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire) Community (now part of The Antibody Society), notably via participation in the Software Working Group and Germline Database Working Group.
Dr Michele Mishto (Senior Lecturer in Immunobiology, KCL/Crick)
Prof Flemming Hansen (Chair of NMR Spectroscopy, UCL)
Dr Dan Hart (Consultant in Haemostasis, Barts/Queen Mary)
Dr Joe Grove (MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research)
Dr Shilpa Chokshi (Scientific Manager, Institute of Hepatology)

We would like to thank the following organisations for supporting our research:

Prof Adrian Shepherd (Group Leader), Emeritus Professor of Computational Biology, ISMB and Birkbeck, University of London

September 2022:
Adrian Shepherd is giving a talk at the Institute of Hepatology, King's College London on the 27th.

February 2022:
Adrian Shepherd has become Emeritus Professor of Computational Biology.

July 2021:
Trupti Gore joins the group to do her LIDo BBSRC Studentship with second supervisor Dr Michele Mishto at KCL/Crick.

April 2021:
Xianli Li joins the group from the ESIEE in Paris to do an internship looking at viral mutation patterns over time.

Congratualtions to Martin Rosellen for passing his PhD viva.

March 2021:
MSc Bioinformatics students Joan Amaya Cuesta, Zak Downey, Varada Krishnadas, Georgina Leslie, Rory McDaid, Rosie Mottram, Hirushi Rajapakse and Anna Sidera have joined the group to do their MSc research projects.

November 2020:
Colin Straton (MRes Bioinformatics) has joined the group to do an MRes project on immune repertoire visual analytics.

October 2020:
Trupti Gore (LIDo DTG PhD student) has joined the group to do a rotation project applying deep learning and data augmentation in the field of adaptive immunology.

Justin Barton has joined the group to do a PhD applying deep learning to challenges in the field of cancer immunology.

All Shepherd Group News