The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted sex differences during infection, with increased hospitalizations and deaths in SARS-CoV-2-infected men as compared to women. This observation is not exclusively seen in SARS-CoV-2 infection; in fact, biological sex has a prominent influence in regulating immune responses. Generally, women display enhanced innate and adaptive immune responses when compared to men, resulting in less severe infections and increased response to vaccinations. While sex differences are attributed to the combined effects of sex hormones, sex chromosomes and societal factors, it is still unknown how biological sex influences genes and pathways in immune cells that significantly impact immune responses. In the Systems Immunology Lab at Lund University (https://theconsigliolab.wordpress.com/), we investigate how biological sex impacts human immunity using systems immunology approaches.
We are looking for a MSc student (ideally over 20-week project) interested in wetlab training in human immunology, with the possibility of developing skills in computational methods of data analysis. We are located at BMC B12, and the projects in our lab entail performing human blood cell cultures, stimulating immune cells to assess immune function via different methods (i.e. flowcytometry, etc), and identifying genes and pathways regulated by sex hormone receptors (CRISPR, CUT&RUN sequencing). Training/knowledge of immunology, as well as experience with cell culture and molecular biology are both desired but not required.
If you have any questions you are welcome to email me directly at camila.consiglio@med.lu.se