Kate Barber graduated from Miramonte High School and was a participant of CHORI’s annual summer student program. She was funded by the Elizabeth Nash Foundation.  Kate investigated the effect of bacterial toxin pyocyanin, which is commonly found in CF lungs, on H2O2 production by the airways. She used a multi-well plate reader assay to determine the amount of H2O2, and epithelial effects were tested in Ussing chambers.  Kate found that pyocyanin results in excessive production of H2O2 resulting in oxidative stress of airway cells.

Tara Streich-Tilles was a participant at last year’s summer program at  CHORI. She is currently a student at Yale University and volunteered again this year at CHORI.  Her current project was to determine whether airway epithelial cells express the proton channel HVCN1. This was done by measuring the expression of messenger RNA (by real-time PCR) and of protein (by immuno blotting). Tara found that the airways express both mRNA and protein for HVCN1.