Miscroscopic Surveillance

Confocal Microscopy


Challenge
Track HPV as it travels through a cell.

Impact
Demonstrated an unbiased quantitative method to confirm visual observations during the surveillance of HPV infection.

Role
Developed the methods, performed microscopy, and implemented software scripts to aid quantitative analysis.


Research approach
Sometimes, seeing is believing. In this part of my research project, I used microscopy to more deeply understand the results of my molecular biology experiments. To track HPV, I fluorescently labeled the virus in one color and the compartments that carry cargo in another color. I took images of infected cells using a confocal microscope and looked for patterns in color distribution and overlap. To confirm my visual observations, I created a quantitative analysis work flow using FIJI (image processing software). By statistically comparing the amount of red/green overlap at different time points, I was able to determine HPV’s location inside individual cells over time.


Image processing: Blue is the cell nucleus, green is HPV, and red marks storage compartments within the cell. When HPV is inside these compartments, you see yellow. This is one of the ways I studied the steps of HPV infection. 





Laser setup used for fluorescence microscopy.