Deep Sequencing of BCR Heavy Chain Repertoires in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 2025, Ryback et al

I struggle to keep up with the names. Can you remind me who Jo is?

 

That's Auntie Jo.

When Vikki Abrahams was doing her PhD with us her supervisors were Uncle Jo (me) and Auntie Jo (Cambridge). We also had a data technician called Jo.

 

[Port Talbot accent]: Jo the didge-it.

 

Any suggestions on topics for background reading/learning for those of us not versed in this stuff who want to have the best chance of understanding what you’ll be talking about?

DecodeME got me learning about DNA. This paper built on that with B cell repertoires, receptors and lifecycles as well as a bit about T cells.

It sounds as if cytokines, complement proteins/pathways and the tumour necrosis factor superfamily would be useful areas here?

 

Probably everything. But a lot of it is fairly familiar stuff and easy to follow I think.

 

Everything… ok I shall continue with my crash course in blaggers biology then

 

I think otherwise, in quite a major way! I'm really excited about your and Jo C's paper but when it appears, as things stand, I really am going to be reading it thinking, 'What? What?'

Like @hotblack, I've been mugging up on DNA (thymine! homologous! SNP!) so that I have more than a snowball's chance in hell of understanding DecodeME's results but I know zippo about any other aspect of biology. I've read everything you've said about your ideas so far and I haven't understood any of it. I don't know anything about B cells, T cells, cytokines, and whatnot except that they exist.

Should those of us crawling in the dust of ignorance be reading about immunology, generally speaking? Or cell biology? Or specific bits of both? Or something else? Maybe the things @hotblack listed?

 

The cynic in me prefers to wait for the paper and hope that @Jonathan Edwards and others on the know will take questions at all levels here.

Will there be diagrams?

 

No, only buns and lemonade.

 

Me neither, but I never worry about it! Even if I only watch from the back of the lighting box, I can still see most of what's happening in the story.

 

Yay!

 

@Sasha this youtube account (https://www.youtube.com/@AKLECTURES) has been a great resource for me to learn about topics in biochemistry, immunology, etc. when I wasn't physically able to take those classes.

It's meant to be a "review series" for those studying for medical school, so all the videos are around 10 minutes each and clearly laid out (and will be marked as part of a series if the concept takes more than 10 mins to explain).

The account has hundreds of videos but usually they are well tagged in the description, so you can find a bunch of relevant videos easily if you just search something like "cytokines" or "complement system."

Often I will watch a video, it doesn't make sense immediately, but then I'll watch the next few related videos and it'll start making sense. Then I can go back to the first one and all of a sudden it clicks in my head.

 

Thanks, @jnmaciuch, I'll have a look!

 

You have to provide your own buns and lemonade though.

 

I’ll send them in the mail, please allow 7-10 business days.

 

Thanks @jnmaciuch those videos look like a handy resource.

And @Sasha I’m sure we’ll all discuss and help each other along the path of understanding as we always do

 

Bummer. I prefer figs myself.