Immune Cell Research Fuels Undergrad's Passion for Career, University

Newswise ? Three years ago, Kate Kondratuk didn?t want anything to do with South Dakota State University.

Like many of her classmates, the 2011 Brookings High School graduate thought her best bet for an education was at a private college or large university outside the state. Kondratuk admits she chose SDSU because she didn?t want to take out a loan to pay for her education and State offered her a good scholarship.

?What I?ve realized is that you?re as close or as far away from home as you want to be,? Kondratuk said. Today she?d like to get on the loudspeaker at Brookings High School and tell her peers, ?Hey, you guys need to look at this school.?

Her enthusiasm comes from the opportunity she?s had to do undergraduate research in microbiology and the lessons she?s learned from this work.

A sophomore, Kondratuk is already known for the work she?s doing with bovine viral diarrhea virus and the immune cells called neutrophils that rush through the blood stream to destroy any bacteria that enters the cow?s body.

Began with Microbiology Research Fellowship

Kondratuk was awarded a 2012 American Society of Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship to study how these immune cells defend the cow?s body and how the virus neutralizes them. Her fellowship provided a $4,000 stipend for her research work, a two-year student membership and a trip to the society?s presentation institute and general meeting in Denver in May 2013.

Although she will finish the fellowship in December, she estimated that what she wants to accomplish on the neutrophil project will take the rest of her undergraduate career. She will continue her research through the university?s honors college as an independent study project.

Her adviser, professor Chris Chase of the veterinary and biomedical sciences department, agreed. ?This is not a trivial project,? he said. Very little research has been done on these immune cells since 1970 simply because it is so difficult to work with them. ?They die just like that,? Kondratuk said as she snapped her fingers.

Chase explained that the virus?s name is a misnomer because diarrhea is the final symptom. ?It is an immune-suppressive disease,? he said. ?White blood cell count goes down, and the animal becomes susceptible to other infections.? Pneumonia and respiratory diseases are the most common outcomes.

When an infection invades the cow?s body, neutrophils are released into the blood stream and rush to the site of the infection to eliminate it quickly, Chase explained. Once they spring into action, these immune cells live for only six hours.

Immune cells difficult to culture

Before Kondratuk can figure out how viral diarrhea neutralizes these first responders, she said, ?I have to work through a lot of kinks.? Once the blood is drawn from the cow, she has had to learn how to isolate and culture these tricky little critters.

?On a given day, it can be a good day or a really bad day when the neutrophils become active in the centrifuge, clump and die,? she said.

On the bad days, Kondratuk heads to the library to dig through the literature to find out what could have gone wrong, how to do it better next time and how to fill in the blanks for future experiments.

Kondratuk has figured out that if the cow has been running or stressed before the blood is drawn, the cells are more likely to clump. ?They are very delicate,? she said. She also puts the tubes of blood on ice as soon as they are drawn and centrifuges them at 4 degrees Celsius.

?Cold is the key to keep them from getting activated,? she said. Once activated, they die quickly, and she must wait until more blood can be collected.

Despite the challenges of working with these cells, Kondratuk said, ?I think they are cool. The neutrophils eat the bacteria and spit out extracellular traps that catch and kill foreign bodies.?

Undergrad become an expert

?She?s become the expert,? Chase said. She has developed her own support network, meeting the leading authority on neutrophils at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service National Animal Disease Center at Ames, Iowa and collaborating with a group of experts at the University of Wisconsin.

Next Kondratuk wants to see what the virus does to the neutrophils to prevent them from leaving the bloodstream as they normally would. She will begin by comparing healthy immune cells with those exposed to the virus.

?People don?t know about these cells,? Kondratuk said, ?and I want to find out everything I can.?

Kondratuk is considering a career in biomedical research and plans on getting her doctorate in immunology and infection diseases first and then a medical degree.

?I love the immune system, particularly the complex interactions of pathogens and immune systems,? Kondratuk said. ?I feel like I?ve had an amazing opportunity to start my career already through undergraduate research.?

About South Dakota State University

Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state?s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from eight different colleges representing more than 175 majors, minors and specializations. The institution also offers 29 master?s degree programs, 12 Ph.D. and two professional programs.

The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.

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