Asunskis, Amy

• Post-Doc., Chemistry, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 

• Ph.D., Materials Chemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 

• B.S., Chemistry, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO

Alveolar macrophage cells play a role in the immune response actions in the lungs when a foreign material is present. Current studies are just now coming to an understanding of the complex response from the macrophages and neutrophils. Silver and cadmium nanoparticles will be used to study the immune response of alveolar macrophage in vitro with a focus on detecting and quantifying the production of the cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). The infrastructure at Black Hills State University is important to the success of this project. The cell culturing facility in West Core is currently being used to culture and test the Alveolar macrophage. The WestCore facility will be paramount in the testing of the macrophage gene response with the use of PCR and MiSeq to gain real-time analysis of the changing responses from the cells.