Our bodies defence “immune” system fights against pathogens by recognizing "self" versus foreign “non-self” molecules. Pathogens are immediately recognizable as foreign and destroyed by the immune defence forces such as T-cells. These cells can detect the invading pathogens by recognising the “non-self” molecules (antigenic epitopes). When pathogen invades, of the many proteins present in the complex pathogen, our immune systems mount reaction only towards a few selected epitopes derived from the invader. Those few epitopes can elicit wide range of immune response of varied intensity and can be grouped as “immunodominant (IDD)” and “sub-dominant (SD)”.

However, for a given pathogen not every individual elicits the same pattern of “IDD” and “SD” responses owing to genetic difference between us. These genetic difference arise due to surface molecules expressed by our cells called Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) that are responsible of presenting epitopes to T-cells. Thus, for an effective universal T-cell vaccine, we need to untangle the complexity of inter-individual HLA differences to define the pattern of “IDD” and “SD” immune responses. A perfect analogy to the universal T-cell vaccine is the internet TV provider Netflix. Analogous to the HLA-epitope complex within an individual person, Netflix provides preferences (for this individual) for one show (high rating) over other, in a similar way to “IDD” and “SD” responses. Based on a user groups’ preference for a show, the algorithm in Netflix defines a “pattern” for specific shows from highest-lowest ratings and thus caters tailored program list. Similarly, based on an individual’s HLA-epitope combination, our study identified a specific pattern of IDD and SD immune responses and defined how changes in HLA-epitope complex change the preferential “patterns”. Thus, our study contributes to our knowledge of universal vaccine design by defining the immune response in a context of inter-individual genetic differences.