lemurs are the most critically
endangered species of vertebrates on the
planet it is likely that many species
will go extinct within the next 100
years and so there is a very urgent need
to develop advanced diagnostics advanced
vaccines to be able to aid ongoing
conservation efforts in Madagascar our
research provides the groundwork for
developing those advanced approaches
what we’re trying to understand more
about is how the lemur immune system
responds to pathogens the sifaka lemurs
every year there’s a seasonal outbreak
of Cryptosporidium parvum
crypto is a pathogen of concern not only
at the Lemur center but also for human
populations worldwide Cryptosporidium is
a pathogenic protozoan that causes
extreme dysentery the individuals that
acquire crypto infection die likely
because of dehydration if you identify
the infection soon enough there’s steps
that we can take to help prevent death
but ideally we would have maybe a
vaccine or advanced diagnostic procedure
that could be used almost immediately
upon signs of illness
if an individual does experience
symptoms we will go and acquire a blood
sample and I will select the white blood
cells from that sample we then perform
RNA extraction that RNA from the white
blood cells is what we can use to
generate sequence data of the antibodies
so it provides a snapshot of the immune
system at the moment that the blood
sample was taken and that snapshot will
tell us which antibodies are being
upregulated and that’s the information
that’s critical
what’s the immune system of that
individual doing how is it particularly
interacting with that pathogen that
database that we can develop of
expressed antibodies can be mined in the
future to be able to help create
advanced diagnostics and vaccines
if we do nothing then they’re lost
forever right and so that’s why
developing vaccines for wild populations
of primates is so important because if
we don’t do it they’re going to be lost
forever
endangered species of vertebrates on the
planet it is likely that many species
will go extinct within the next 100
years and so there is a very urgent need
to develop advanced diagnostics advanced
vaccines to be able to aid ongoing
conservation efforts in Madagascar our
research provides the groundwork for
developing those advanced approaches
what we’re trying to understand more
about is how the lemur immune system
responds to pathogens the sifaka lemurs
every year there’s a seasonal outbreak
of Cryptosporidium parvum
crypto is a pathogen of concern not only
at the Lemur center but also for human
populations worldwide Cryptosporidium is
a pathogenic protozoan that causes
extreme dysentery the individuals that
acquire crypto infection die likely
because of dehydration if you identify
the infection soon enough there’s steps
that we can take to help prevent death
but ideally we would have maybe a
vaccine or advanced diagnostic procedure
that could be used almost immediately
upon signs of illness
if an individual does experience
symptoms we will go and acquire a blood
sample and I will select the white blood
cells from that sample we then perform
RNA extraction that RNA from the white
blood cells is what we can use to
generate sequence data of the antibodies
so it provides a snapshot of the immune
system at the moment that the blood
sample was taken and that snapshot will
tell us which antibodies are being
upregulated and that’s the information
that’s critical
what’s the immune system of that
individual doing how is it particularly
interacting with that pathogen that
database that we can develop of
expressed antibodies can be mined in the
future to be able to help create
advanced diagnostics and vaccines
if we do nothing then they’re lost
forever right and so that’s why
developing vaccines for wild populations
of primates is so important because if
we don’t do it they’re going to be lost
forever
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