Step 1: Designing and Administering Vaccines

March 23, 2014
Our first meeting was a success!

1) List 4 types of vaccines:
-live attenuated (pathogen is alive, but weakened)
-inactivated (pathogen is dead)
-subunit (just a piece of the pathogen + an 'adjuvant' like alum)
-toxoid (the toxin produced by the pathogen, chemically inactivated)

2) Model them with donuts:
-scraped off the frosting (measles, mumps, chickenpox)
-smashed (polio, Hep A, rabies)
-sprinkles only + alum adjuvant (Hep B, pertussis, HPV)
-cream filling 'toxin' (diphtheria, tetanus)

3) We examined the kitchen-shelf version of alum (used for canning vegetables) and went over how it stimulates the immune system and is used in subunit vaccines.

4) Wet lab:  Alexi made her very own REAL vaccine!
-protein from the inside of the flu virus + alum + saline

5) Centrifuge vaccines to demonstrate that protein is fully adsorbed (stuck to) to alum

6) Inject real research subjects: nine 'black 6' mice
-injected intramuscularly, just like how most vaccines are given to humans

Preparing for Step 1: Designing and Administering Vaccines

We are meeting this weekend for our first experiment!  Lexi will meet me at my research facility within National Jewish Health this Sunday, March 23rd.

As researchers, we must wear long pants and closed-toe shoes!  We will try our best to collect ample photo evidence of our experiment.  We will be modeling four main types of vaccines, creating a REAL vaccine, and administering it to research subjects (mice) so that we can examine how the immune system responds to our vaccine.

Experimental Outline (coming soon!)

Hello, Robot!!