The human T cell receptor repertoire in health and disease and potential for omics integration.

The adaptive immune system arose 600 million years ago in a cold-blooded fish. Over countless generations, our antecedents' tunned the function of the T cell receptor (TCR). The TCR system is arguably the most complex known to science. The TCR evolved hyper-variability to fight the hyper-variability of pathogens and cancers that look to consume our resources. This review describes the genetics and architecture of the human TCR and highlights surprising new discoveries over the past years that have disproved very old dogmas. The the standardisation of TCR sequencing data is discussed in preparation for big data bioinformatics and predictive analytic analysis. New TCR signatures in disease are catalogued, discovered by TCR next generation sequencing (NGS) and discuss remaining work to be done in the basic and applied fields. Finally options of combining TCR NGS with current omics platforms are discussed for a deeper understanding of TCR biology and use in clinical settings.