Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Eosinophils are a type of immune cell present in the body of mice and humans. Under normal, healthy conditions they are present in many organs and tissues but their role is unknown. The thymus is an organ in the body where critical immune cells called T cells develop. Eosinophils have been found in the thymus and their numbers increase at developmental stages of mice and humans. I hypothesize, that eosinophils are important in guiding normal development of T cells which in turn, aides normal immune system functioning. I will be investigating this question by dividing it into three parts: 1. To determine what is causing the increase of eosinophils in the thymus of developing mice. Proteins can send messages to cells and attract them to different tissues. I will identify which proteins are causing eosinophils to increase in numbers in the thymus. 2. To uncover which proteins eosinophils are producing in the thymus of developing mice. Eosinophils have the ability to produce protein which might influence the development of T cells. My goal is to determine which proteins eosinophils are producing in the thymus. 3. To find out specifically, where eosinophils are located within the thymus of developing mice. It is our intention to identify which part of the thymus the eosinophils are located in. This will help us determine which other cells eosinophils are interacting and communicating with, such as T cells. Mice are ideal animals to use to model the human immune system, because they have similar immune cells and proteins. With these three aims we expect to gain insight as to how immune systems should function normally and draw conclusions as to why sometimes these processes fail. Failure of T cell development can lead to diseases such as autoimmune disorders.