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Engineering Tools to Characterize Immune Responses Important for HIV Prevention

HIV remains a global epidemic, with 37.9 million people living with HIV worldwide (UNAIDS, 2018). Various prevention strategies, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral treatment in pregnant women with HIV have shown to be effective in decreasing HIV transmission. As these prevention strategies are becoming more commonly used, it is important to understand their effects on immune responses relevant for proper diagnosis and treatment.  In addition, elucidating inflammatory responses/mediators that can increase HIV susceptibility is also key to reducing HIV transmission. Altered immune responses in patients with HIV that occur as a response to novel PrEP modalities, are not well characterized and tools to characterize this altered response are lacking. Furthermore, as chronic inflammation is a factor known to increase HIV risk, it is important to understand mechanisms mediating these processes. This talk will discuss the methods I have developed to explore immune responses related to HIV prevention and diagnosis. These include characterization of HIV antibodies commonly used for diagnostic tests, and proteomics-based systems biology approaches used to analyze epigenetic mechanisms of inflammation shown to increase HIV risk in uninfected infants born to HIV positive mothers.

Brief Bio:

Dr. Ivana Parker is a Fulbright Scholar who recently completed a year-long study at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Her project assessed the risk of a commonly used tuberculosis vaccine, BCG, on HIV susceptibility in infants using proteomics and systems biology approaches.  She completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship as an American Society for Microbiology postdoctoral fellow at the Centers for Disease Control within the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.  At the CDC, she evaluated the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on current diagnostic assay approaches and identified trends to optimize assay design. Ivana received her PhD in Bioengineering from Georgia Tech in 2015. Her thesis investigated the effects of pro-atherogenic shear stress, HIV proteins, and antiretroviral therapies on the vasculature using in vivo and in vitro models. During her time at Georgia Tech, she received the NSF graduate research fellowship and was selected to be a trainee on an NIH Cell and Tissue Engineering Training Grant. She also received a Whitaker Grant to develop artificial aortic valves in Cape Town, South Africa and facilitated set-up of a lab in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during her PhD training. Ivana earned her BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 2009.

Source: 

ENGINEERING TOOLS TO CHARACTERIZE IMMUNE RESPONSES IMPORTANT FOR HIV PREVENTION

Connect with Dr Parker on Twitter: @DRIKParker

As we dig deep into making this year the best possible- we want to encourage you to sit still. Don’t run from your thoughts. Pour a cup of our amazing tea and have time to and for yourself to deal with how fast this life goes by. Know that you are equipped with everything you want and need to have, be and get everything you want and need.  We are here for you Brown Babe. Don’t forget to join our Facebook community to ensure you have the sisterly support you deserve and need. 

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In this episode we sit down with a long time family friend Farrah Bledsoe and talk about how life will offer you the chance to build a story of resilience. During our chat Andretta and Farrah share how continuous loss of family members, businesses and more forced Farrah to truly get in touch with her competitive side and grow out of the shell that others designed for her as she was growing up. 

While known to be the pretty one that always has it together – Farrah shares that her gifts of having a business mind, competitive spirit  and keen sense of opportunity have always been the core of her foundation. We dive deep into the power of knowing your story and how your story shows up in the way that you decide to live your life. We break down the power of resilience and the necessary mindset needed to push through everything life throws your way.

5 Ways to Build Resilience 

It’s common for people to credit their success to confidence instead of resilience. Resilience is one of the most overlooked character building attributes a person can have.  But not many people are able to explain how building one’s confidence is often based on how they  utilize resilience. 

It’s tricky, because life often throws different things at us, but overall we grow from the choices and accomplishments that feed our passion and make us feel proud of who we are. Discovering these fundamental things can be one of the most worthwhile pursuits of your life. Here are 5 ways you can begin building your resilience today and bounce back from tough times:

1. Get Things Done  

Resilience is built on accomplishment. If you achieve small and big goals, you’re going to feel much better about yourself after facing a hard time in life. Those day-to-day goals are what you need to accomplish things today, tomorrow, next week or three years from now to help meet your goal and heal from trauma.

2. Monitor Your Progress

Try to quantify your accomplishments: write down how you’re able to show up for yourself in hard times. If you’re able to exercise daily or be more mindful of the things you eat- write that stuff down. It is important to see how the small things can turn into big things while building up your strength at the same time.  Doing so  will help you stay on course, and you will build resilience as you see the progress you’re making in real time.

3. Exercise   

Besides benefiting your health in general, exercising helps memory retention, improves focus, helps manage stress and prevents depression. It’s harder to be anxious when there is no excess energy to draw upon, and outside of being difficult and uncomfortable at times, exercise improves every aspect of your life.

4. Think Long-term 

The foundation of unhappiness is a decision made for short-term comfort that impedes long-term goals. You have to decide if your short-term comfort is more important than your long-term goals, but know that long-term goals will bring you far more happiness in the long run than your short-term comfort. This is the fundamental element of resilience. The ability to have vision beyond where you are now and realizing where you need to be in order to truly prosper. 

5. Do More Of What Makes You Happy 

What do you love to do in your spare time? Whatever it is that you love, create space for it, because life is short- you need time to enrich your life and to recharge to be your best self. Living in the present is the best gift you can give yourself along with permission to enjoy your life. Time is precious- no matter how much life throws at you, your ability to take it, grow from it and move on better because of it will help you build a testimony that can change the world.