About Brie
Brie Banten is a current senior at UNC Chapel Hill from Wilmington, North Carolina. Brie is studying Biology with a minor in Medical Anthropology on a pre-medical track. Additionally, she is an Undergraduate Research Assistant in a Mock Lab at UNC’s medical school. In her lab, she focuses on immunological processes and molecular mechanisms underlying lung repair and resolution following acute lung injury. Currently, Brie’s lab is studying how Sik-1 cells help or hurt regulatory T Cells (T-regs) and their activation in acute lung injuries.
How T-Regs Work:
Regulatory T Cells (T-regs) are white blood cells that regulate the immune system’s response to substances inside and outside the body. Sik-1 cells (salt-inducible kinase 1) is a protein kinase that regulates many cellular processes. T-regs support recovery from acute lung injury (ALI) induced by LPS, S. pneumoniae, and influenza. T-regs support ALI recovery through controlling pro-inflammatory immune cells (which cause tissue damage), but also signal to the tissue itself to promote recovery. In Brie’s lab, researchers sedate and inject the lungs of mice with LPS. Following this, they measure the cells over a 7 day period. The lab is currently testing the hypothesis that ‘Sik-1 cells suppress the function of T-reg cells.
