Austin Bigley
University of Houston, USA
Biography
I am a post-doctoral researcher working in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Simpson at the University of Houston. I joined Dr. Simpson’s lab in 2009 and was funded his first two years as a teaching fellow and the last three years as a research assistant working on NASA grant NNX12AB48G. I am interested in cancer immunotherapy using NK-cells, especially how exercise and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection modulate NK-cell activity against hematologic malignancies. My goal is to understand the mechanisms underlying the effects of exercise and CMV infection on the phenotype, cytotoxicity, proliferative capacity, and persistence of NK-cells with an eye toward developing adjuvants for allogeneic adoptive transfer of NK-cells. My research thus far has been funded by a NASA grant awarded to Dr. Richard Simpson and he will continue to have access to these resources if awarded this fellowship. Through this collaboration with NASA, I have acquired expertise in cell culture techniques, cytotoxicity assays, and flow cytometry methods that have led to multiple publications in prestigious peer-reviewed journals.