In order to set up the logistics for the future projects,  our colleagues at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) provided 72 Bronchoalveolar lavages (BAL) from HIV-infected patients.

 

This preliminary shipment helped both teams to find breaks in the process, such as sample collection and processing, labeling, packing, and shipping timing. We learned together about the best way of overcoming shipping issues; for instance: the dry-ice provision at different stops, conservation of the samples, and overall shipping and handling procedures.

 

 

We used part of these samples to look for relevant cytokines in BALs from HIV-infected patients who had opportunistic infections, such as TB, PcP, Cryptococcosis, fungi and bacterial infections. 

 

RNA was extracted from the cells to analyze gene expression of our targets of interest and RNA sequencing. DNA was extracted to search for other interesting pathogens hypothetically present in those samples.

 

We are still working with these BALs, as their potential for research purposes is enormous.

 

Come back soon and check our progress on our preliminary work, and read about the amazing projects that we are about to launch!