This postdoctoral researcher studies what drives immune cells to divide or die in two different clinical cohorts.
Ashley Ginda is a postdoctoral researcher in Una O’Doherty’s group at Emory University. She studies white blood cell proliferation. In this Postdoc Portrait, she discusses her enthusiasm for her work, which spans research with patient-derived cells and exploring how the immune system interacts with HIV and sickle cell disease.
Q | What’s your research background, and how did you first get interested in your field of research?
I first became interested in HIV as a pharmacy student. I then worked with an amazing group of dedicated individuals in an HIV clinic, where I gained insight into the complexity of the medical care and support needed to provide the best care. My work with these individuals inspired me to join a research lab where I could dive deeper into understanding mechanisms of HIV persistence and viral evolution over time.
Q | Tell us about your favorite research project you’re working on.
It has been developing an ex vivo model to culture white blood cells from individuals with sickle cell disease or HIV to understand mechanisms of proliferative drive. In individuals infected with HIV, we are using these ex vivo culture systems to understand HIV driven proliferation. In sickle cell disease, we find that, similar to red blood cells, the white blood cells have a faster turnover rate. We are investigating the potential mechanisms behind the increased hematopoietic drive with the goal of understanding why individuals with sickle cell disease are at an increased risk of leukemia.
Q | What has been the most exciting part of your scientific journey so far?
The most exciting part of the scientific journey thus far is taking our protocol from start to finish. What I mean by this is consenting an individual to join our study, isolating the cells that they donate, and then culturing them ex vivo and monitoring their phenotype with the ultimate goal of learning something new about the interactions between the immune system and HIV or sickle cell disease. It is an honor to work with donor samples from start to finish.
Q | If you could be a laboratory instrument, which one would you be and why?
I would be an incubator. Incubators are the quintessential piece of equipment to perform my tissue culture studies. Fine-tuning incubator settings is critical to mimic physiological conditions that you find in the body. Moreover, incubators are also a symbol of start-ups. In science, it’s so important to work with a collaborative team to foster new ideas and hypotheses.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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