Project description:This RNA-seq experiment profiles peripheral blood mononuclear cells from AmaXhosa children aged 12–36 months with clinically diagnosed moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and matched healthy controls living in rural or urban South African settings. The main goal is to capture systemic immune transcriptional programs associated with early-life atopic dermatitis while accounting for the strong contextual influence of environment. By comparing disease status across rural/urban strata, the dataset is designed to distinguish disease-linked expression patterns from location-associated immune signatures, and to identify gene sets reflecting pathways plausibly involved in atopic inflammation, barrier/immune regulation, and related mechanisms. The resulting transcriptomic signatures are intended for downstream integration with cytokine and antibody measurements and environmental exposure data to support mechanistic interpretation and endotype definition.
Project description:Global transcriptome analyses provide an excellent basis for the identification and definition of biomarkers with high relevance in infection processes, therapeutic intervention and protective immunity. The measurement applies three different state of the art transcriptomic technologies for global expression profiling to vaccine development. Different microarray platforms in conjunct to next generation sequencing (NGS) will build the basis for comparative approaches, such as up-down classification and correlation coefficients. This measurement is based on Agilent microarrays and a clinical trial phase Ib study with M. bovis BCG vaccination. • Surrogate measurement using whole human blood • 4 time points: d0 (naïve, pre-immunization) and d14, d28,d56, d168 post m. bovis BCG immunization • Responses of PPD positive study groups • Group size of approximately 6 individuals European network of vaccine research and development (TRANSVAC)
Project description:Phylogenetic analysis of Mycobacterium bovis using WGS isolated from DNA extracted from wild-type in the North-East part of South Africa.