"Pre-empting Emerging Viruses: Infection Dynamics of a Transmissible Vaccine Candidate against Vampire Bat-Transmitted Rabies"For this project, I will be developing and testing a betaherpesvirus-vectored vaccine (transmissible vaccine) against rabies in vampire bats, utilising laboratory studies, phylogenetics and experimental infections in a captive vampire bat colony. If successful, this project would pave the way to using transmissible vaccines to eliminate zoonotic viruses circulating in wild bats; pre-empting spillover into human populations.Supervised by: Dr. Daniel Streicker (https://streickerlab.com/)Funded by: The Carnegie Trust (Henry Dryerre Scholarship)

Responsibilities include:Taking OrdersBussing and Resetting Tables Hosting (Seating Guests)Running FoodCommunication With the KitchenTaking Cash and Card PaymentsManaging Cash and TillsCleaning the RestaurantTraining New-startsMaintaining High Customer SatisfactionKeeping Up to Date With Relevant Health and Safety TrainingEnsuring Quick, Smooth and Excellent Service in a High-Paced Environment

Carried out a 3 and a half month project at the University of Glasgow/MRC's Centre for Virus Research as part of my Masters course - under the supervision of Prof. Pablo Murcia.Altering the host cellular response to infection is a mechanism used by viruses to help circumvent detection and/or suppress the host antiviral machinery. Changes in cellular expression in virus-infected cells compared to uninfected cells can be quantified via RNA-seq experiments, generating large transcriptomic datasets that can be used to assess changes in gene expression. This project aimed to analyse publicly-available transcriptomic datasets of human respiratory cell lines infected with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 in order to determine the relative levels of global and ISG-related dysregulation caused by each virus. SARS-CoV-2 shows much greater fitness in humans compared to MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, with MERS-CoV showing the lowest fitness. In this project, we proposed the relative fitness of each virus may be related to: the degree of global dysregulation induced by each virus, and, the degree to which each virus activates the host IFN responses.Literature searches were carried out on PubMed and the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. Data analysis was carried out primarily on RStudio. Analyses included: Data Parsing, Bar/Violin/Venn/Pairwise Scatter Plot Production (ggplots2), Differential Gene Expression Analysis (DEseq2), Principal Component Analysis, Pathway Analysis and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis.

Carried out a 3 month project at the University of Glasgow/MRC’s Centre for Virus Research as part of the final year of my undergraduate course - under the supervision of Dr Vanessa Herder and Professor Massimo Palmarini.Previous work had shown an increase in the level of IL-10 in Ovine Bluetongue Virus (BTV) outbreaks associated with more severe clinical strains (and also higher inflammatory cytokine profiles). In particular, a BTV-1 outbreak in 2006 in Italy showed much more severe clinical symptoms in sheep compared to outbreaks of BTV-1 in 2013, also in Italy, and BTV-8 in France (which caused a vastly asymptomatic presentation in sheep). In the BTV-1 2006 outbreak - compared to BTV-1 2013 and BTV-8 - serum levels of IL-10 were significantly higher.T-regulatory cells are producers of IL-10 and, hence, this project aimed to determine if the source of the excess IL-10 in more severe clinical strains of BTV was associated with T-regulatory (Treg) cell expansion in the lymph nodes – a common mechanism seen in other arboviral infections. Multiple Avidin-Biotin Immunohistochemical analyses were carried out, using Foxp3 antibodies, on different Ovine lymph node sections from each of the three different outbreaks. This was followed by slide scanning in order to visualise the Treg Cells in the lymph nodes.Nuclear algorithm software was used to quantify and compare the number of Tregs present in the lymph node sections from the different outbreak groups.Results indicated that BTV infection, surprisingly, actually reduces the number of T-regulatory cells in the draining lymph nodes; and, significantly reduces numbers in more severe clinical strains. Since T-regulatory cells function by suppressing excessive immune responses to prevent immunopathology, it can be suggested that this T-regulatory cell depletion is a major factor in the uncontrolled pro-inflammatory cytokine response seen in more clinically severe BTV strains.

Undertook a 8-week summer internship under the supervision of Professor Sheila Graham at the University of Glasgow/Medical Research Council (MRC) Center for Virus Research - successfully securing competitive funding from the Wellcome Trust.The main aim of the project was analysing the effect of Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection on differentiating keratinocytes. Using RT-qPCR, the expression of certain immunological modulators and molecules were shown to be either upregulated or downregulated during HPV infection, which was consistent with previous RNA-sequencing experiments which yielded the same results. Confocal Microscopy also showed HPV infection induces keratinocyte differentiation earlier than usual, in Raft Tissues and Clinical Samples. Knowledge of the regulation of certain immune factors during HPV infection, and keratinocyte differentiation, facilitates better understanding of the HPV lifecycle, and how the virus modifies the cellular environment to promote growth and dissemination.Techniques utilised include: RNA Extraction, cDNA Synthesis, RT-qPCR, Cell Culturing, Antibody Staining, Indirect Immunofluorescence and Confocal Microscopy. I also attended the annual Scottish Skin Biology Conference and several internal and external seminars hosted by active researchers in virology.