Question: You have achieved your dream and are now a prominent immunologist. One afternoon, while pondering which direction your research should take, you vividly remember the pain that the “rusty nail incident” caused. Thankfully, you have a functioning immune system; however, not everyone is so fortunate. There are individuals that suffer from severe combined immune deficiency (SCID). As you continue to plan the next phase of your career, please answer the following questions.
- What protein(s) contribute to this condition?
- What are the molecular and cellular impacts of this / these deficiency(ies)? Please indicate the normal function(s) of these protein(s) and how they are altered to cause disease.
- As you were recently notified that you have unlimited funding available, please devise an experimental system to test the effects of SCID on bacterial infection? What experiments would you perform? How would you perform them? What would be your expected results, potential problems, and conclusions could you draw from this study?
