Benedicta Bright Mensah
About
My research project
Understanding B cell development in immunity: Age-related changesThe first part of my research is focused on the effect of isotype switching on antibody binding affinity to the Sars-CoV-2 spike RBD domain. The second part of my research is focused on analysing single-cell transcriptomic and repertoire data to investigate age-related changes to yellow fever vaccination.
Supervisors
The first part of my research is focused on the effect of isotype switching on antibody binding affinity to the Sars-CoV-2 spike RBD domain. The second part of my research is focused on analysing single-cell transcriptomic and repertoire data to investigate age-related changes to yellow fever vaccination.
University roles and responsibilities
- Residential Advisor. My role is to occasionally visit students in campus accommodations to check on their wellbeing and signpost them to the appropriate places if they need specific problems to be solved.
Publications
Class switch recombination (CSR) allows B cells to produce antibodies with distinct effector functions, but its dynamics during a primary human response remain poorly understood. We sampled COVID-19-naïve healthy volunteers every other day during the first three weeks after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, combining bulk and single-cell cell receptor repertoires, single-cell transcriptomics, immunophenotyping, and IGHC sterile transcript analysis. Vaccine-specific B cells show sterile transcription across all IGHC genes up to IGHG2, contradicting the prevailing idea of single-gene sterile transcription. Clonal tracking confirms that sequential CSR exists: e.g. IGHG3 to IGHG1, IGHG1 to IGHA1 and IGHG2, with sparse switching beyond IGHG2. VDJ gene usage associates with specific isotype subclasses and differential CSR timing. CSR and somatic hypermutation are temporally decoupled, with antigen-specific clones remaining hypomutated up to ten weeks post-immunization. These findings complement textbook models of CSR and inform strategies for vaccines requiring switching to key isotypes such as IgG1 or IgA2.