Before joining the International Vaccine Institute, Dr. Czerkinsky has been serving as the Director of the Division of Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology at INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) since 1997, focusing on basic mechanisms governing induction of immunity in mucosal organs.
Dr. Czerkinsky received doctoral degrees from the University of Lyon Medical and Dental Faculty in France, and the University of Gothenburg Medical School in Sweden. He has more than 130 scientific peer-reviewed publications in immunology and vaccinology with a major focus on mucosal vaccines and immunomodulators.
Dr. Czerkinsky invented the ELISPOT, a method for monitoring immune responses in humans and animals, which is used world-wide. His work has been focused on basic immunological mechanisms pertaining to vaccine development against infections, auto-immune disorders and allergies.
Cytokine production can also be detected by intracytoplasmic staining and flow cytometry. Like ELISPOT, intracytoplasmic staining provides information on the actual frequency of antigen-specific T cells that produce a given cytokine. However, ELISPOT assays are orders of magnitude more sensitive in detecting low-frequency antigen-specific cells. Antigen-specific T cells frequently occur in frequencies lower than 1 in 10,000 in peripheral blood, placing them below the detection limit of flow cytometry but easily detectable via ELISPOT.
Unlike ELISPOT assays, cytokine bead arrays and ELISA assays do not provide frequency information and do not quantify the per-cell secretory activity. In contrast, ELISPOT assays can distinguish between few cells secreting large quantities of a molecule versus numerous cells secreting smaller quantities.
Unlike mRNA measurements that reflect cytokine expression at a single moment, ELISPOT assays capture the secretory product during the entire duration of the assay. This makes detection via ELISPOT insensitive to the fine kinetics of the cellular response. For the same reason, two-color ELISPOT assays are ideally suited for measuring the coexpression of different molecules by the same cell.
Cytokine and granzyme B ELISPOT assays have recently emerged as the most sensitive and robust technique for direct ex vivo monitoring of antigen-specific CD4 or CD8 T cells. By measuring the frequencies and cytokine signatures of individual cells, they establish the clonal size and effector class of the specific T cell pool.
Staphylococcal pneumonia is associated with a huge influx of inflammatory cells into the lungs. A major trigger for this event is now revealed. Protein A, a bacterial surface protein, binds the receptor for TNF , a prominent activator of the innate immune system.
The fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states, "Many men with gonorrhea may have no symptoms at all, some men have some signs or symptoms that appear two to five days after infection; symptoms can take as long as 30 days to appear. Symptoms and signs include a burning sensation when urinating, or a white, yellow, or green discharge from the penis. Sometimes men with gonorrhea get painful or swollen testicles."
The staining test involves placing a smear of the discharge from the penis or the cervix on a slide and staining the smear with a dye. Then the doctor uses a microscope to look for bacteria on the slide. One usually can get the test results while in the office or clinic. This test is quite accurate for men but not for women; only one in two women with gonorrhoea have a positive stain.
The culture test involves placing a sample of the discharge onto a culture plate and incubating it up to 2 days to allow the bacteria to grow. The sensitivity of this test depends on the site from which the sample is taken. Cultures of cervical samples detect infection approximately 90 percent of the time. The doctor also can take a culture to detect gonorrhoea in the throat. The culture test allows testing for drug-resistant bacteria.
If artificial wombs provide safer environments than natural ones, it might be possible for pregnant women to be forced by the courts to have their fetuses placed in artificial wombs instead. In the case of a crack addict mother, this is probably not a bad thing, but given the nature of our court system, a social worker could see a pregnant woman wearing a seat belt improperly or performing a risky activity, and have the fetus removed from her for its own good.
Companies might attempt to write clauses into employment contracts stating that if a pregnancy interferes with work, then the fetus must be transferred into an artificial womb. While the average fast food clerk, secretary or computer programmer might not have to worry about that, female executives or laborers would.
Complete ectogenesis could dismantle both of these premises. First, it could make Roe's viability issue moot because with ectogenesis a fetus could be technically viable outside the mother's womb from the moment of conception.
That would surely impact the other idea underpinning Roe: a woman's right to privacy. With ectogenesis, an unwanted fetus, rather than being aborted, could be removed from a woman and placed in an ectogenetic chamber to be adopted later. The woman's right to privacy would arguably not be invaded because removing the fetus to implant in an artificial womb need not be any more invasive than the abortion she was originally seeking. Of course an issue that might arise would be the right to control the dissemination of one’s genetic material, in this case in the form of unwanted children.
As bioethicists Peter Singer and Deane Wells write of ectogenesis in their book Making Babies: The New Science and Ethics of Conception, "Freedom to choose what is to happen to one's body is one thing; freedom to insist on the death of a being that is capable of living outside of one's body is another."
ICS tests are used for the specific qualitative or semi-quantitative detection of many analytes including antigens, antibodies, and even the products of nucleic acid amplification tests. One or several analytes can be tested for simultaneously on the same strip. Urine, saliva, serum, plasma, or whole blood can be used as specimens. Extracts of patient exudates or fluids have also been successfully used.
Test specificity can also be very high. The tests use colloidal gold, dye, or latex bead conjugates to generate signal. The assembled strips are dried and packaged, making them stable for months or years when properly protected from moisture and excessive heat.
