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I try to understand how the immune system fights viruses. Viruses are responsible for all kinds of illnesses like colds, flus, warts and even complex conditions like AIDS. Although our immune system has some very smart ways to fight them, viruses are actually better at studying our immune system than us, and have developed strategies of hiding from it or even switching it off.

Viruses are basically just a piece of code just wants to makes lots and lots copies of itself. To do so it hijacks the cells machinery; its printers, and copies it’s DNA. The DNA is a set of instructions of how to make another virus but also how to hide and not get killed by shutting off the bodies cries for help.

If we knew how virus shut off the cell’s cries for help we could develop drugs to help the cell fight the virus better. The problem is, we’re actually not exactly sure how cells detect the virus’ DNA. This is what I am trying to find out. I’m looking at the cellular machinery that detects a virus’ DNA during an infection and turn on these cries for help. To do this I use skin cells and infect them with viruses that cause cold sores in humans. As skin is the outermost barrier of our bodies it is the first site of contact for many infections thus is important for launching immune responses to many types of infections.

Often when I come into the lab the first thing I need to do is feed my cells.

In some ways my cells feel like a pet as they need a lot of attention and care to keep them alive. If the cells look like they’re growing OK, I’ll take some out of their flasks and set up an infection with cold sore virus. This means most of the other days of my week will then be spent looking at how the infected cells deal with the virus. Sometimes I’ll watch how they change under the microscope, or I’ll measure different kinds of help me signals that are produced to tell the immune system that there is an infection. I can even do experiments to measure how well the virus grows in the cells.

There is often some waiting around while my experiments are running. I use this time to read research papers about new techniques or new discoveries. I also go to seminars to hear other scientists from different universities talk about their work. Once a month I to present my results to other members of my research group. This is actually really helpful as we brainstorm to help each other out if we’re stuck with any research problems and it’s great for coming up with new ideas.