Figure 1. Development cycle of integrated models using immunoinfectomic approaches for vaccine and drug discovery. Integrated models consist of three important components: (1) genotypic and phenotypic selection of antigens using infectomic approaches; (2) mapping of B-cell and T-cell epitopes by a combination of prediction algorithms and high throughput technologies and (3) confirmation of the immunogenicity of these epitopes can be carried out in vitro (B-cell assays and T-cell assays) and in vivo (transgenic mice). Models are iteratively tested and improved by comparison of predictions with holistic level responses measured experimentally through a combination of traditional assays and high throughput approaches.

Figure 2. Dynamic changes in adhesion, growth and infectomes of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MenB) during bacteria adhering to epithelial cells: (a) adhering bacteria (squares) were counted after washing and lysis of the host cells (triangles, bacteria freely growing in the medium; circles, growth of cell-associated bacteria); (b), (c) RNA was isolated at different times from both adhering and freely growing bacteria, and used to probe DNA chips carrying the entire MenB genome: (b) clustered expression profiles of genes whose regulation differs from freely growing bacteria by at least 2-fold, (c) regulated genes in (b) were further analysed according to activation state (light grey, upregulated; dark grey, downregulated) to give a visual indication of the persistence of gene regulation. Grey scale represents n-fold difference. cfu: colony-forming units. (Reproduced by courtesy of G. Grandi from Grifantini R et al. (2002) Previously unrecognized vaccine candidates against group B meningococcus identified by DNA microarrays. Nature Biotechnology 20(9): 914–921).