Outline of Major Research Endeavors

Part of my internship includes doing some scientific research at NIMRI, the National Institute of Medical Research in Mwanza, Tanzania. I am being overseen by my academic supervisor, Dr. Gregor Reid, who specializes in research on probiotics and is a professor of Microbiology and Immunology. I have been meeting at Lawson Research Institute over the past couple of weeks working in the lab and learning about making media, growing bacteria on selective plates, performing quadrant streaking, and doing dilution series to plate a small quantity of the bacteria so colonies can be counted easily (basically all this work to assess the number of bacteria in a sample)!


Dr. Joke's Clinical Trial:
I will have the opportunity to help out with a 30-day trial with 150 HIV+ women. Of these, 75 will be receiving probiotic yogurt and the other 75 receiving unsupplemented yogurt. The trial is being led/overseen by Dr. Joke, a Dutch Doctor presently working in Tanzania. She is hoping to take blood-spots and vaginal samples at day 0 and day 30, as well as filling in questionnaires on the demographics and health history etc. of the women. The blood-spots will be analyzed for viral load and the vaginal samples will be analyzed for Nugent scoring (a Gram strain scoring to test for bacterial vaginosis) and using a microarray and tested for STIs. Some of the analyzing of samples will be done in the Netherlands, but some will be done locally at NIMRI in Mwanza. A Tanzanian doctor and a Nurse in Sekou-Toure will be responsible for acquiring the patients for the study, and a nurse in the hospital will be helping with the vaginal samples and questionnaires. It sounds like an amazing opportunity to observe the positive health benefits that the probiotics confer to patients!

The "Moringa Project":
1. This lab research will explore the potential of adding a micronutrient source to further enhance the yogurt. We will be looking into the use of adding Moringa, an exceptionally nutritional vegetable that grows locally. We want to discover whether the Moringa will affect the viability of the probiotic strains and also how it effects the sensory qualities of the yogurt (ie. taste, texture, appearance).

2. In addition, we're looking into ways to carry probiotic strains in other fermented foods, such as a fermented porridge! This might be easier and cheaper source of probiotics and micronutrient because it would not require cows and refrigeration for the milk.

(The Moringa may be able to be used in the yogurt and the porridge to enhance nutritional value if the research indicates positive results!)

P.S. There will be two Dutch medical students joining us in Mwanza in March or April to work on the same project. I'm thrilled to have the chance to work alongside some really knowledgeable people and to have the potential to publish a scientific article. It's always amazing when things I'm learning at school can really be put to use in "the real world".