If you are motivated to think yourself into challenging topics and to get to know modern laboratory techniques, then apply to us. We offer you the opportunity to take a look at current research topics and become active yourself.
Projects for project students
As part of the veterinary medicine degree programme, a scientific project work must also be completed around the 8th semester. The project work covers a period of four weeks full-time at the Institute of Immunology. In addition, a project-specific publication must be worked on in preparation for the topic and the most important contents must be presented in a PowerPoint presentation to the supervising person and the head of the institute.
In this context, the institute offers project work on current research projects in order to gain insights into the state of research. In the process, demanding laboratory work is carried out and one can get to know modern analytical methods relating to the immune response or genetics. The project work can be completed alone or in groups of two, whereby each student is given a separate sub-area to work on. Through intensive supervision by an experienced scientist, the project students learn scientifically correct work in current research projects, the conscientious keeping of a laboratory notebook and the preparation of an informative poster, which is obligatory. Within the framework of the dies academicus, the project students of the respective year come together and can discuss their results among themselves and present them to the research committee, which selects the best of the presented project works and awards them prizes. If you are interested in working on a project at the Institute of Immunology, take a look at the currently advertised projects.
(1) Interaction of pulmonary epithelial cells with a pathogenic fungus (I)
a. After preliminary work with human pulmonary epithelial cells in projects carried out last season, a murine pulmonary epithelial cell will be used in this project to investigate the interaction with a human/animal pathogenic fungus. Since the number of available antibodies is significantly higher than in human cells, the interaction can be characterised much more precisely. The system is completed by studies of the influence of murine macrophages on epithelial cells. The following investigation methods are available for this project and offer a comprehensive insight into laboratory techniques
i. Cell Culture
ii. TEER (measurement of transepithelial cell resistance)
iii. FITC-Dextran measurement (measurement of the diffusion rate through the epithelium by fluorescence photometry)
iv. Flow cytometric analyses (use of a modern multi-colour flow cytometer to determine molecular alterations of selected marker proteins of epithelial cells)
b. The data obtained are recorded in a laboratory book and then evaluated with software support. The necessary programs are available and after a detailed instruction the independent evaluation of the data takes place.
c. The work is carried out in a block of 96 hours throughout the day. The work concludes with a detailed report on the project and includes an introduction to the topic, a description of the applied methods, the results achieved and a discussion of the results. Furthermore, it is planned to produce a poster which will be presented and defended at the next dies academicus.
(2) Interaction of pulmonary epithelial cells with a pathogenic fungus (IIa)
a. In this project, the cellular interactions of cells in the lung will be characterized. Different techniques will be used for this purpose. First, lungs of non-infected and infected mice will be removed, filled with agarose, embedded and cut by cryotome. The sections will be examined unfixed to improve antibody binding. The antibodies will be used to identify cells and their position in the lung. These investigations provide information about possible cellular interactions of immune cells with epithelial cells in normal and infection states. The following techniques will be used for the investigations
i. Section of mice under sterile conditions and treatment of the organ to be examined
ii. Embedding the specimens and cutting with a cryotome
iii. Immunofluorescence staining of samples
iv. Analysis of samples by laser scanning microscopy
b. The data obtained are recorded in a laboratory book and then evaluated with software support. The necessary programs are available and after a detailed instruction the independent evaluation of the data takes place.
c. The work is carried out in a block of 96 hours throughout the day. The work concludes with a detailed report on the project and includes an introduction to the topic, a description of the applied methods, the results achieved and a discussion of the results. Furthermore, it is planned to produce a poster which will be presented and defended at the next dies academicus.
(3) Interaction of pulmonary epithelial cells with a pathogenic fungus (IIb)
a. Using a reporter system, the induction of allergic inflammation in murine lung tissue will be investigated. Lungs of so-called reporter mice, whose lung cells begin to glow green at the beginning of Th2 induction, will be removed and divided into 100-200 µm thick sections by means of a vibratome. These living lung sections are subsequently treated with various stimuli, including red luminescent pathogenic fungi. It will be investigated whether there are differences in the strength of the Th2 response to the fungus depending on the number of fungal cells used in the lung. The evaluation is done by confocal microscopy techniques. The following techniques are presented in this project:
i. Cell culture
ii. Sectioning of mice under sterile conditions and preparation of the lungs for making cuts
iii. Preparation of vital pulmonary slices, so-called precision cut lung slices (PCLS)
iv. In vitro infection and stimulation of lung tissue
v. Analysis of samples by laser scanning microscopy
b. The data obtained are recorded in a laboratory book and then evaluated with software support. The necessary programs are available and after a detailed instruction the independent evaluation of the data takes place.
c. The work is carried out in a block of 96 hours throughout the day. The work concludes with a detailed report on the project and includes an introduction to the topic, a description of the applied methods, the results achieved and a discussion of the results. Furthermore, it is planned to produce a poster which will be presented and defended at the next dies academicus.
If you are interested, please contact
PD Dr. Uwe Müller
BBZ - Deutscher Platz 5
Tel. 0341/97-31224
Dr. Maria Eschke offers project work in the context of her research on canine T cells. If you are interested in this topic, please contact Dr. Eschke.
If you are interested in a project work dealing with T cells in dogs, please contact
Dr. Maria Eschke
BBZ - Deutscher Platz 5
Tel. 0341/97-31226
Dr. Protschka offers project work with a focus on "Molecular Genetic Methods in Current Research Projects".
(1) Establishment/optimization of RT-qPCR for the detection of gene expression at RNA level in murine / canine / porcine tissue
Methods:
Primer Generation with Primer Blast (NCBI)
RNA Isolation
DNAse digestion
reverse transcription
RT-qPCR
Evaluation of the data with Excel/Graph Pad
(2) Establishment/optimization of immunohistological detection of protein expression in murine / canine / porcine tissue
Methods:
Preparation of tissue sections (cryo/paraffin)
Comparison of different fixation methods
antigen demasking
Optimization of antibody concentration
Signal amplification with Biotin/Streptavidin
If you are interested, please contact
Dr. Martina Protschka
BBZ - Deutscher Platz 5
Tel. 0341/97-31226
Dr. Nicole Schütze offers project work in the context of her research on the porcine immune system. If you are interested in this topic, please contact Dr. Schütze.
Dr. Schütze offers project work on the immune system of pigs. Among other things, flow cytometric analysis of porcine B-cell populations is carried out. Much of the work takes place in cooperation with the Institute of Bacteriology and Mycology.
If you are interested in a project work dealing with the porcine immune response against bacteria, please contact
Dr. Nicole Schütze
BBZ - Deutscher Platz 5
Tel. 0341/97-31222