Antigenic structures of proteins. Their determination has revealed important aspects of immune recognition and generated strategies for synthetic mimicking of protein binding sites.

Studies in this laboratory have resulted in the delineation and synthetic verification of several complete protein antigenic structures that are recognized by antibodies. More recently, for the first time, the full profiles of the sites that are recognized by T cells have been localized and confirmed by synthesis for two proteins, myoglobin and lysozyme. These have thus far constituted the only complete antigenic structures to be determined. The availability of these antigenic structures has enabled us to investigate in detail the molecular and cellular parameters responsible for immune recognition, responses to, and control and regulation of these responses to protein antigens at the molecular and submolecular levels. Moreover, these investigations have afforded general strategies for the synthetic mimicking of not only antigenic sites, but also protein binding sites involved in other biological activities.