Generation of a high-resolution view of the maternal alloimmune response by structural biology

Maternal alloantibodies generated during pregnancy against the fetal HPA1a epitope on integrin αIIbβ3 can occur without major consequences, but can also cause severe complications and even death of the fetus and/or newborn. It is currently unknown why some antibodies cause severe disease, while others do not cause any symptoms. It is therefore crucial to visualize the antibody/antigen interaction at the highest resolution possible, which we will perform for the first time in this project (Project ID 68603), using the Titan Krios on purified antibody/antigen complexes. The results are crucial for development of future implementation of prenatal diagnostic tests.