[ Background Discussion ]
>> All right.
Here we go.
>> One, two, three.
Go.
>> Wow [laughter].
I love it.
OK. A couple more.
>> So. I'm Yasmine Belkaid, and
I work at the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious
Disease.
And we are in the
laboratory [inaudible].
And we are working
essentially on trying
to understand how tissue are
capable to control infection
and in part [inaudible] trying
to understand is how the host
is capable to defend itself
against invasive microbe without
destruction of the tissue.
In the context of this
question, what we're trying
to understand is
actually how commensals
that are the microbe that's
leaving the surface of the skin
or the gut, controlling
immunity to infection.
But we're also trying to
understand how dietary elements,
such as vitamins are also
contributing to immunity.
The laboratory is
very collaborative.
And I'm looking for people
that are capable to just work
as a team and just work
for the common good really.
I am looking for people that
are capable to take risk
and start new projects for which
we have very little answers.
>> So I've been studying
immunology for,
since I was an undergrad
in college.
And I've really been fascinated
by the paradox of immunity
in the gastrointestinal
tract, which is a sight,
which is not only the
primary site of infection
but also contains millions upon
millions of commensal organisms,
which share attributes
of infections,
but yet they live
symbiotically in your gut
and actually contributes
significantly
in a positive fashion
to your health.
>> One of the major problems
in the western world is
obviously a lot of conditions
that are associated
with malfunction
of the immune system
and the gut.
So, for example,
inflammatory bowel disease.
>> There's a layer of cells
that are literally in the lumen
of the gut, which is literally
outside of your body sort
of pushing back against
the bacteria.
And if we deplete those cells,
which are called neutrophils,
what we see is that that
structure no longer forms.
And what you have is the
bacteria have really come
into close, close
association with the villi.
And, in fact, what
you can see is
that in some cases the
bacteria have translocated
or literally moved
across the epithelium.
And this is generally a
bad sign for the host.
That means that bacteria
is going to be getting
into your bloodstream,
which is somewhere
where we really don't
want it to be
and can cause us to
become quite sick.
>> Essentially [inaudible]
is a germ-free facility.
That is a facility in
which the animal are raised
in [inaudible] microbes.
And what we do is we add very
defined micro [inaudible]
different microbes
to look at the impact
of the microbe [inaudible]
system.
So Shirley is actually
extracting cells from the skin
to try to understand the role
of the microbe that's
leaving the skin
on the [inaudible] system.
So what's she's going to do is
begin extracting the cells using
this small machine and
isolate them and run them
through flow cytometry to look
at the function of the cells
in the presence or
absence of microbes.
>> Some of the microbes that
most people may be familiar
with would be staph epidermitis.
So it lives on your epidermis or
[inaudible] acne, which causes,
which is known to cause acne.
And so we're really trying
to understand how these bacteria
communicate with immune cells
and what they do for
immunity in the skin.
>> We're really passionate
about it.
It's not for the money.
>> Definitely not for the money.
>> It's just, I think why we're
in research, I can only speak
for myself, but I
guess just because its,
I really like the idea
of trying to figure
out how things are
interconnected and just
like if I have an idea, I can
come to the lab and test it.
Most of the time you discover
the great things by chance
because you're studying
something else.
It's probably important to
keep in mind because, yeah,
it's just like, it's
not really directed.
You can direct it but then
you might, you're very likely
to miss important things
on the side of the road.
>> It could be sometimes
difficult
to actually see the light.
Experiment can be long.
They can fail.
It can take years
until we have answers.
So I think this part
can be really difficult.
But I think the collaborative
nature
of what we do makes it really
quite nice to go together
in these kind of questions.
