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Remaining Hours

Internship, Independent Study and Cuisine

Biomedical Research

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

For part of my remaining hours, I chose to do a biomedical/vaccine research internship in Barouch Labs at BIDMC. In the future, I hope to go into the STEM field, so I took this opportunity to expose myself to how ground-breaking research and clinical trials are formulated in a lab-setting. I go in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and my days consist of running assays, such as an ELISA, gel electrophoresis and other lab procedures in the protein group.

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Main Project - ELISA

My main project in the lab was running ELISAs (Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay), an assay used to measure the ab responses in the animal serum. My ELISA's used mice serum to test if an mRNA platform can be used to design an HIV vaccine through measuring the amount of antibodies produced.

Objective - Design a vaccine that can induce antibody response against HIV envelope gp160 and prevent virus entry into host cell

Behind the Scenes:

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  • 1st step is understanding if the vaccine can induce antibody responses ​​

  • w0 —> first collect serum (see no ab responses against HIV) —> then give 1st dose

  • w7 —> 2nd dose ab response increased significantly (by analyzing ab titers in animal serum)

  • w9 —> Analyze ELISA antibody titers

Conclusions: Can mRNA hiv vaccine induce ab responses in pre-clinical animal models? YES! The Vaccine is capable to train b-cells in mice to induce antibody responses against the HIV envelope gp160! 

Watch part of the process!

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