As we are currently amidst a global pandemic mainly affecting the United States, we face an unusual circumstance that has forced the Lisman Labs team to pivot remotely. Due to the pressing importance of science to research a vaccine targeting COVID-19, the leaders of our lab felt that the addition of a “Pivot to COVID” research group was appropriate and timely. As a new addition to the Lisman Labs research program this summer, our group thus far has gained a sufficient amount of background knowledge on immunology, as well as introduction to Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). After giving a presentation on Immunology to the rest of the research team and participating in a virtual FACS simulation lab, we hope to use this understanding to aid us in analyzing real mouse/COVID data provided by Dr. Rachel Rempel, a scientist at Duke University. We will be analyzing white blood cell data she collected from mice with humanized immune systems through a website called FlowJo using Flow Cytometry. Based on the results of the data, we will compile our findings in a final write-up, explaining the data and its significance.
We started our journey through this lab by learning about the immunology of COVID-19. In this presentation, we learned about the molecular biology of the virus and an individual’s immune response after contracting it. This information has helped to inform our research over the past few weeks. We then went on to explore the field of immunology in depth by immersing ourselves in textbook chapters, articles, and podcasts. Within a few days, we put together a 30-slide interactive presentation on the immune system: pathogens, molecular recognition, the innate immune response, and adaptive immune response. We also explored and presented flow cytometry in preparation for analyzing this method of cell sorting. After presenting, we completed a lab simulation of Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting using the Labster platform.
Over the next week, we will be exploring FlowJo, a website used to analyze Flow Cytometry. Once we have a better understanding of the system, we will use FlowJo to analyze the white blood cells from mice with a humanized immune system treated with a drug that inhibits clotting, which is one of the symptoms in patients with severe COVID-19. We will end our lab with a write-up of some of our conclusions from analyzing this data.
Sammy and Helena
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