Last day of class for term 2
So today was the last day of class for term two!!Monday we have a mock exam followed by the real deal on Tuesday (yikies!!)
Starting 1 February we have 9 days to write a grant proposal to be handed in and graded for the other 50% of term two's grade. We have to follow the Wellcome Trust "rules" for grant writing, aka it's not as long as an NIH (National Institute of Health).
So I had two ideas for grant topics, since of course this has to be a grant on unpublished data! My first two thoughts of course where related to the work I did with Pete. Let me just side track here quickly & tell you that if it weren't for the 100s of things that Pete (& Paula) taught me in the 4 years I was at Trudeau, I would be DYING in this course right now!!) I never realized how much I learned not just lab based!! Thank you Pete & Paula!!! Okay, back on track now - my two possible grant topics are as follows:
1. Comparison of different strains of BCG, the Microbiology (CFU, duration of persistence) then Immunology (which cells are affected), then challenge the mice with Mtb (CFU & pathology) from there check the genetics of the different strains
2. Effects of BCG & worm infections - give primary jab of BCG (without nematodes) then give H. poly (or similar) and give subunit adjuvant or MVA boost & follow what occurs. This idea is much less thought out but came to me earlier this week from a discussion we were having in class about how a Th2 response dominates a Th1 therefore if you already have a Th2 going on it might "screw up" the much wanted Th1 response of the BCG.
Any comments on those ideas?!?!? I've been given the "stamp of approval" for either topic - just need to make sure I'm up to date on the literature of these issues - that's what this weekend is for :)
Well Susan should be here any minute for our Friday night curries, so I'm gonna get going - hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Friday & a great weekend!!
posted by Sara @ 5:49 pm
1 Comments:
If you go with the worm idea (and I think it's a cooler grant) don't forget that worms induce T regulatory cells (FoxP3 pos cells) that make IL-10 and TGF beta. It's more likely that is how they are affecting immune responses. Look up papers by Rick Maizel (a brit). You can propose to use Rudensky's FoxP3/GFP mice to follow induction of T regs. I can send you some more refs if you decide to do this.
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