Pamela Lewis, a student of Dr. Joseph Carlin’s lab of the Microbiology Department and Director of the Mallory-Wilson Center for Healthcare Education at Miami University, is a microbiology major who is interested in studying Chlamydia trachomatis. She is interested in seeing how HeLa cells infected with C. trachomatis are avoiding apoptosis. Because of this, she has proposed the following question: How much ceramide is needed to induce apoptosis in infected HeLa cells and is more or less ceramide needed to induce apoptosis in Chlamydia infected cells? These questions are important because throughout her career at Miami, Pamela has learned about many different types of bacteria and their life cycles. Because of the different classes she has taken, she has found an interest in studying C. trachomatis. Additionally, in the experiment, some techniques used were MTT assay, ELISA plate reader, and sterile technique. From using these techniques and following protocol, Pamela was unable to make conclusive results on how Chlamydia infected HeLa cells were avoiding apoptosis. However, she was able to make novel protocol in order to conduct experiments, and Pamela has been able to learn more about the research process. For future research, Pamela intends to add a positive control, etoposide, to further understand the apoptosis process in HeLa and HeLa cells infected with Chlamydia. One major finding and problem Pamela found in her original research protocol, was the lack of a quality positive control. Therefore, adding etoposide will help to validate the results of future experiments. Lastly, this experience has been relevant for her intended career because Pamela hopes to attend medical school in the future. Throughout this process, she has been able to learn more about C. trachomatis infections along with learn more about how the research takes place.
Author: Pamela Lewis
Faculty Advisor: Joseph Carlin, Microbiology
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