Chloe Wainwright

Joining the Knight group in 2022 as a Research Assistant, I have been involved in the wide variety of projects being undertaken by the team. My primary role is involved in the processing of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) that can then be applied in various cell culture studies to investigate how they function in conditions like sepsis. Often among these processes are RNA/DNA extractions and genomic quantification techniques involving Qubit, Nanodrop, and Tapestation devices as well as the occasional Flow Cytometry and/or Cell Sorting experiments.

Graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in Microbiology, I have a keen interest in the microbes involved in disease and understanding how the inner workings of cells are altered by, and can cause, ill health. Applying this knowledge to sepsis has allowed me to explore the many ways the human microbiome is intricately linked to sepsis and is able to control the immune responses involved, with dysbioses (or an imbalance of the normal, healthy mixture of microorganisms within the gut) often both exacerbating sepsis and simultaneously being caused by it. However, often is also the case that dysbioses can be neglected as a leading condition for disease given the complexity of the guts microbial immune-interactive landscape and a lack of understanding of how to approach it. My aims are to study this further and connect the world of immunological genetics to the diverse and dynamic ecosystem of the microbiome.