The SDMCC interviewed participants from the Fall 2023 cycle of the CIVICs Collaborative Training Program to learn about their experiences and their research projects. The Program provides funding for early-career researchers to collaborate and receive training from a hosting CIVICs institution in a technique that is new to their home laboratories. The Collaborative Training Program offers funding twice per year for projects that last up to two weeks. In the Fall 2023 cycle, five researchers from across CIVICs participated. We’re continuing this series with a profile of Center for Influenza Vaccine Research for High-Risk Populations (CIVR-HRP) member, Kristin Wiggins, who recently earned her PhD from the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for her work in Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry’s laboratory.
Antigen (COBRA) methodology to develop a better recombinant protein vaccine platform and thereby improve the standard influenza vaccine. Wiggins tested different adjuvants and found the COBRA-designed vaccine candidate was particularly effective in obese mouse models. This sparked an interest in Wiggins and became the foundation of her dissertation – to improve influenza vaccine responses, especially in high-risk obese populations.
Wiggins, alongside lab partner Stephen Winston from Dr. Andrew Davidoff’s lab, visited Dr. Andrea Sant’s lab at the University of Rochester for the Collaborative Training Experience. Wiggins’ home laboratory specializes in virology, so this was a great opportunity to learn immunology, particularly in-depth CD4+ T-cell research. Wiggins was working with a potentially viable vaccine platform that, “generates a really stellar vaccine response.” She was excited for the opportunity provided by the Collaborative Training Program because the members of the Schultz-Cherry lab, “do all the virology assays, but we had yet to understand what’s really going on with the adaptive immune responses.” Wiggins and team noticed a potentially better CD4+ T-cell response in their Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vaccine expressing the COBRA-derived influenza antigen. In Wiggin’s words, their goal for the CIVICs Collaborative Training Program was “to really expand our understanding of what types of cytokine-producing CD4+ T-cells we were generating, and if they were the reason why we were getting such greatly improved vaccine responses in our mouse models.”
There was extensive coordination leading up to the pair’s time in Rochester. Due to a variety of impediments, the program was delayed a few times. Wiggins stuck with the plan and said it was ultimately worth it to keep rescheduling so she could learn on the same instrument that was available in her home lab. Everything had to be timed just perfectly, so there were many instances where the timeline had to be adjusted to ensure the mice were exactly 6 weeks post-vaccination prior to spleen harvesting. It is also important to work with the cells within 24 hours of harvesting, so they had to carefully coordinate to have fresh samples by the time they landed in Rochester and got to Sant’s lab. Wiggins and Winston got up at 2:30 am to go to the mouse house and harvest spleens! Once they had their samples ready, they still had to get to the airport and convince TSA to let them take their samples onto the plane. Luckily, they made their way through and were ready to begin their experiments upon arrival.
In the beginning, Wiggins and Winston learned the process by watching Samantha Conflitti, the lab technician at Sant’s lab, run the vaccinated samples to identify the numbers of cytokine-producing CD4+ T cells generated by the different vaccines. Then, they performed the experiments side-by-side with Conflitti from start to finish to ensure proper technique. It was important to Wiggins to learn how to run enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot) assays to better characterize what is happening from a virology standpoint. Although St. Jude had recently gotten a Cellular Technology Limited (CTL) analyzer, an instrument used to scan and analyze immunoassays, she had not yet been trained to use it. Through this program, Wiggins learned how to carefully design the experiment, perform the ELISpot assays, run the machine, interpret the results, and then visualize and analyze the data.
Wiggins could see the vaccine platform was working but wanted to know the “why.” Having the expertise of the Sant lab was paramount to guiding the execution and analysis of her research. The members of the Sant lab were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful in the creation of a detailed protocol that Wiggins was able to bring back to St. Jude. She is grateful to participate in the CIVICs Network, where highly collaborative science brings the best and brightest minds together to take creative and innovative approaches seamlessly across numerous institutions. The CIVICs community didn’t have to wait long to learn about Wiggins’ results from her newly gained skills – their work was recently published in the Journal of Virology, with more to come soon.
If you’re interested in applying for the next cycle of the CIVICs Collaborative Training Program, reach out to support@niaidcivics.org!