D05CA-608: Defining T Cell and B Cell Responses after CDV Vaccination in Dogs Background and Significance

principal investigator: Danielle Perrone, student, The Ohio State University

Project Mentor: Stefan Niewiesk, DVM, PhD

completed

Year: 1 of 1. $0

In order to be effective, vaccines need to protect a population against the development of clinical signs of disease. As a result, most vaccination studies focus on parameters which can be easily measured, such as levels of antibodies in serum. However, there has not been much investigation into the mechanisms of immunity induced by vaccines. This project looked at the immune response after vaccination, using dogs and canine distemper virus (CDV) as the model system. Danielle developed several assays, including a T-cell proliferation assay and an ELISA, and worked to correlate their results with the "gold standard" assay used traditionally.

Danielle says, "My project has allowed me to consider a career path as a clinical researcher, something that I had not thought about before. I was also intrigued in this research because no one has detailed these experiments before, and it is exciting to know that my work can forge the path for other future projects, in a field as ever-changing and controversial as vaccination research."