Monocytes RNA-Seq analysis

Monocyte Gene and Molecular Expression Profiles Suggest Distinct Effector and Regulatory Functions in Beninese HIV Highly Exposed Seronegative Female Commercial Sex Workers¶

🎯 Project objective¶

Contract project done with the Roger laboratory at University of Montreal’s Hospital Center’s Research Center (CR-CHUM,Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal).

The project aimed at characterizing the immune cells populations differenciation in key Beninese populations by studying their transcriptome between differenciation profiles.

This research was part of Laurence Blondin-Ladrie’s Master’s degree project and led to an article in MDPI’s Viruses journal.

📋 Project description¶

In a human key cohort that has developped resistance to HIV infection via the female genital tract (FGT) from Benin country, this fundamental research study aimed to investigate the immune response that could have led to such a resistance to infection.

Previous studies had led to identify Monocytes white blood cells differenciation to be a key component of this immune response. Therefore, the study aime to characterise the expression profiles of such cells before and after differenciation into multiple profiles using Flow cytometry, RNA-Seq sequencing, and Multiplex immunoassay.

Therefore, the data from three different sources was analyzed and correlated.

• RNA-Seq sequencing gave insight into gene expressions

• Flow cytometry gave insight into cell types populations and their surface markers expression

• Multiplex immunoassay gave insight into excreted molecules into the cells environment (blood plasma)

🎨 Implementation decisions¶

• Statistical analysis were performed in R programming language

• Data correlation from multiple sources using redimensionning methods

🧾 Key takeaway¶

• Experience in medical article writing

• Analysis from multiple sources required data reorganization and statistical methods I hadn’t encountered before

Article Github repository