Microbiology and Immunology

Are immunosuppressive drug administration necessary for allografts of Lewis lung carcinoma or B16 melanoma (both mouse cancer cells) cells into mice? Since these are mouse-derived cancer cells, some investigators are not using immunosuppressive treatment.

HIV is neigh impossible to create a vaccine for, largely due to the fact that it mutates so fast that, by the time a vaccine has been created and shipped out to all the pharmacies, it's already obsolete. However, HIV is a small virus, right? I mean, anything that can seep through your sweat pores has to be small. Therefore, it can't possibly have as many nucleotides as, say, the flu. So, by that logic, can't we just create a vaccine for every single possible incarnation of the HIV virus, and group all of those cells into a single, comprehensive set of vaccines? Keep in mind that you only need one HIV cell injected into your system to constitute a vaccine. A ce…

I have to treat the waste water from the starch industry by anaerobic micro-organisms. which parameters should be checked before initiating the project? Please help me out.

Hi, I've got a compound microscope and plan to investigate the bacteria and fungi of skin flora. Although uni thus far have been very helpful, I want to do as much as this as possible from home and am considering converting the spare room to a lab. I understand that there are safety precautions that I need to take when cultivating bacteria for identification. My ultimate aim is to cultivate bacteria from skin samples for the purposes of identification; so that I may conduction experiments to test several theories that I have with regards to skin conditions. At this time I'm really not sure where to start. I can't seem to find an appropriate book for advice on w…

Hi everyone, I'm working on a science fiction novel, and came here to hopefully get some help with Real Science in order to make my story more plausible. I love science, but I'm more of an occasionally-informed lay person than a serious student of the sciences. My current story is about a human subspecies genetically engineered for immunity to a virus I call The Grip. Their immune systems create Grip antibodies, but humans' do not, and the Grip virus attacks the organs. I have a ton of questions about viruses and immunity, and hope you can help. I'll start off with just a few: 1. If the virus appeared to the human immune system as a beneficial protein, w…

Dear all , I have recently immunised some mice with a human tumour antigen in combination with Abisco adjuvant with a booster injection fours weeks after the first. I got a really good antibody response when testing via ELISA and have used the mouse spleens to isolate Vh and Vl chains from these animals. What I do not have any feel for is what sort of frequency (abundance) I can expect my antigen-specific B-cells to be in the total population of the cells I have isolated - could someone give me a rough idea? I know this is dependent on lots of variables but I really just wanted to have a general idea. Could I expect a frequency of 1% of total B-cells being antigen …

As far as infectibility goes, is there a difference between differentiated and undifferentiated (e.g. stem cells)? That is, are undifferentiated cells more or less prone to infection via bacteria/viruses?

Greetings all, hope you's don't object to my intrusion here, I'm a new member with a question for someone. I'm involved with Silver Colloids and whilst I am no chemist or hold any academic degree or qualifications I am wondering if someone could confirm or deny if collisions of silver ions in solution generate heat? This heating {if applicable} in all probability would require suitable instrumentation to detect {which is not my interest}but do you know if ionic collisions will generate *some* heating effect of either the solution itself, or the particle clusters which are formed. My assumption is...if any form of collision occurs at the atomic state there woul…

What's the beginning point of immunity? The most important question of immunology is recognition of foreign proteins. Is this random process or law? Its natural that this vitally important process can't have random character for every organism because the immune mechanisms have precise reliability and strictly timeframe. So what exactly recognizes the immune system? Of course it recognizes topography of charged particles and maybe hydrophobic groups on the surface of protein globule as described in our theory [1]. But any measurement is impossible without zero point. Thus, if the organism must determine the topography of charged groups, first of all its necess…

Hello, I have a question regarding Legionella infections… How does Legionella DNA end up in blood and urin? Do you know of any articles on this? Thank you kina

Can someone explain what the main differences are in functions of cytotoxic T cells versus natural killer cells (...and are there also "natural killer T cells")? Is it right that NK cells recognize virally infected cells by reduced MHC I expression because the infecting agent takes over host machinery so the host makes less proteins? And do cytotoxic T cells kill cells presenting viral peptides in MHC I? I am confused...also do they both kill by releasing cytotoxic granules into the infected cell, or what is the mechanism?

how does a HiV virus mutate. Im not asking what it mutates, only how. Any answers are fine with me, including what happens, what changes, but try to stick to how. Thanks guys. all answers appreciated

Hi. If there is doubt on how fresh food is, say meat, fish... the best is to discard it and avoid any food poisoning. But, if some meat is in a state that by mistake is believed to be good; would having fried it kill all microorganisms that would produce a digestive illness ? I say frying instead of boiling, baking because I believe it would raise the temperature to the highest 'action'. What would happen ingesting very fried food that was not 'good' ?

What is agitation and vacuum?

Hello, microbiologists! I was having this discussion with a friend and I thought I remembered reading a paper about how it wouldn't work, but I couldn't remember where I read it. The question is this. Different types of bacteria tend not to colonize the same surface, right? Instead of constant hand-washing or re-applying alcohol-based gels, could you use a sort of...benign bacterial yogurt to encourage just the benign bacteria to live on your hands? Would that be an efficacious way to prevent colonization with whatever random bacteria one is likely to pick up? The hand gels work, and don't contribute to antibacterial resistance so far as we know, but tend to be dr…

Would Gram reaction and morphology be appropriate taxonomic criteria for distinguishing between Escherichia coli and Salmonella?

How do you distinguish a genus from a specific epithet?

Why was Leeuwenhoek called the "Father of Microbiology"?

hello, i am new here and i am wanting to make my own agar jelly, i have the 'recipe' of 1/4 cup boiling water, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon gelatin. i was wondering if this would work and if so, what i could grow? i appreciate any help you can offer! thanks ryan

There are quite a lot of products out there that claim to "boost" your immune system. Most of them seem bunk, and I've read a lot of articles saying that not only are the majority of the products not what they claim to be, but that the claim itself that anything can boost the immune system is bunk on its own. The immune system isn't something we can "boost"... or so I've read. But the other day I was watching a random program on discovery channel about a group of people stranded in the icy expanses of Alaska, trying to make their way out. They were hungry and dehydrated, and one of them started a cold. Pretty soon, they were all quite sick. The narrator explained that…

I'm looking to purchase a polarizing microscope on a small budget, and I've realistically narrowed my options to the two little-known (and probably Chinese made) brands of Variscope and Amscope. There is a helpful discussion on Amscope in this very forum, but nobody has mentioned variscope yet. Does anyone here have (or know someone who has) experience using or owning a Variscope? Are they any good? I'm a bit weary because as the old saying goes, "if it sounds too good to be true ir probably isn't." But, unless anyone here knows where I can find a functional polarizing scope with an analyzer/rotating stage for under $2500, Variscope and Amscope are all I can affo…

Hi! I just registered for the Cicatricial Alopecia Research Symposium: Lipids, Inflammation & Stem Cells in Bethesda, Maryland. It looks to be a great two-day event in 2011 to learn about cutting-edge research in the field from world-class experts. I thought you would all like to know about this great educational opportunity! Visit http://cicatricialalopecia.org/ to register!

Do you think it would be possible to create a RISC complex that uses a complementary mRNA strand to detect the RNA strands that code for virus structures and target those for destruction? I've been reading about microRNA as of late. Supposedly, these can form complexes with RNA that target complementary RNA to degrade/destroy them. Also, I've been trying to wrap my head around mitochondria and their applications. So, I came to an idea: What if a person could genetically alter a pre-evolutionary aspect of a mitochondrion relative that can infiltrate eukaryotic cells in order for the invader to transcribe a RISC complex that targets viral RNA? I don't ha…

Do you know how are the typical T CD8+ and B cells concentration in an infected tissue? Other question: I found that the total immunoglobulin concentration in serum is about 10 mg/ml. If the patient has a viral infection, can I infer how is the specific antibody concentration? - I mean, I do not need an exact value (I know this changes a lot for each disease), but I wonder if the specific antibodies will be about 10% or 50% (or a different percentage) of the total antibodies. Can someone help me?

Hi guys Just a quick question: is a T-lymphocyte bigger than a B lymphocyte? By about how much? I will appreciate a good answer!