T-cell epitope discovery technologies

Despite tremendous potential utility in clinical medicine and research, the discovery and characterization of T-cell antigens has lagged behind most other areas of health research in joining the high-throughput ‘-omics’ revolution. Partially responsible for this is the complex nature of the interactions between effector T cells and antigen-presenting cells. Further contributing to the challenge is the vastness of both the T-cell repertoire and the large number of potential T-cell epitopes. In this review, we trace the development of various discovery strategies, the technical platforms used to carry them out, and we assess the level of success achieved in the field today.