Shriya S's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Optimizing Antibody Concentrations for Immunohistochemistry in Traumatic Brain Injury Research
BASIS Advisor: John Goodwin
Internship Location: UA College of Medicine
Onsite Mentor: Madeline Pressman



Project Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when mechanical forces impact the head, shifting the brain within the skull and disrupting neurological function. Affecting approximately 10 million people worldwide, TBI remains a significant public health concern. However, despite its prevalence, the underlying mechanisms driving its pathophysiology are not yet fully understood. In particular, the role of acute and chronic neuroinflammation is crucial in determining how TBI progresses over time and how treatments should be adapted accordingly. A common method for analyzing neuroinflammation is immunohistochemistry (IHC), a technique that uses antibodies to target specific antigens (markers) within tissue samples, allowing researchers to visualize different cell types. One major challenge in IHC, however, is optimizing tissue visualization. When using new antibodies, researchers often struggle to determine the appropriate antibody concentrations needed to maximize stain clarity and usability. As a result, they must conduct preliminary tests on non-experimental tissue samples, leading to unnecessary waste of antibodies and animal tissue. Given the widespread use of animal models in TBI research, minimizing tissue waste and reducing the need for additional animal use is essential. This study aims to identify optimal antibody concentrations commonly used in neurotrauma research to improve IHC tissue sample visualization while promoting efficiency in TBI studies. Data will be collected from the neurotrauma lab at the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona – Phoenix.

    My Posts:

  • The end of a journey: thank you, reflection, and the future

    Hello everyone! Welcome to my last blog post. This has been an incredible, fruitful journey with so many lessons, challenges, and friendships. I learned not only so much about the data analysis technique of immunohistochemistry (IHC), debilitating traumatic brain injury (TBI), or practical lab skills, but also about the interesting nature of science where it... Read More

  • Week 10: Implications of TBI and reflection

    Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog! In this post, which marks week 10 of this experience, I will share the implications of TBI and some of my reflections. Implications of TBI As a debilitating brain injury with complications including seizures, physical disability, and psychiatric disorders, Traumatic brain injury has several implications--societal and medicinal. Immediate... Read More

  • Week 9: Final Touches

    Hello everybody, welcome back to my blog! In this post, I will just be giving some updates. Paper I'm almost done with my paper! We are just waiting for some data, which we will get this coming week, and then we'll be done. This data is the AQP4 batch. We think there was a mistake... Read More

  • Week 8: The end is near…

    Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog! As the presentations approach and the weeks soar by, I want to give you some updates on my progress, along with more images and facts. Updates I've finished coding my IHC scoring game! You can find it using this link. Let me know what you think of it and... Read More

  • Week 7: More Updates!

    Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog. So far, things have been going fairly smoothly, but of course there have been a few challenges here and there, and as the presentation date approaches, the workload is condensing as well. Final Product Throughout the blog posts, I realized I have not mentioned my final product! I... Read More

  • Week 6: Mushroom Medicine??–Updates, Psilocybin, and TBI

    Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. I'll just be discussing some updates and another scientific concept I learned about during my time in the lab–psilocybin as a potential treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Updates We are almost done targeting our goal antigens through immunohistochemistry (IHC)! We finished analyzing Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) last week, and... Read More

  • Week 5: Science! (and updates)

    Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. In this post, I will take some time to discuss updates on my project and some very interesting things I have learned about in the lab. I still am waiting on the immunohistochemistry (IHC) tissue sample images as of now but am expecting to get those soon (hopefully)!... Read More

  • Week 4: MAP(2)ing the way to progress–the antigens MAP2 and GFAP

    Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog! Unfortunately, it does take some time to capture the images of the immunohistochemistry (IHC) stains, so you won't be seeing the IBA1 and GFAP stained tissue samples in this post. Two weeks ago, we conducted IHC to target the antigen GFAP, and this last week, we did the... Read More

  • Week 3: Rats, Research, and Reality–Brain Surgeries

    Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog. As mentioned last week, I will be discussing the rat brain surgeries I had the opportunity of experiencing last week. Because scanning and analyzing the IBA1 tissue samples takes longer than I anticipated, I will be going over that next week. I will also be going over GFAP... Read More

  • Week 2: Diving into the Deep End–Method, IBA1, and More

    Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This week, I'm going to discuss my method, IBA1, and what I plan on doing in the upcoming week. Method Conducting immunohistochemistry, representative of science in general, takes some time. Usually, it's a 2 day protocol. Here is a brief simplified summary of what we do on days... Read More

  • Week 1: What do we know about immunohistochemistry and traumatic brain injury right now?

    Hello all once again! Before we delve into actual lab research, I want to first take some time in this post to discuss the current literature on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The pathophysiology of TBI Comprehending the pathology of TBI is the first step in understanding how enhancing the data analysis technique... Read More

  • Introduction: Optimizing Antibody Concentrations for Immunohistochemistry in TBI Research

    Hello! My name is Shriya Singh, and I am a senior at BASIS Phoenix. This year, I am embarking on a research project in a field that interests me a lot–neuroscience. The brain has intrigued me for a long time, whether I was aware of it or not. Psychology has deepened this interest. But, I... Read More