Nicolas Loof

Establish and lead a Flow Cytometry Facility at the Children Reseach Institute.

I was in charge of the BIIR FlowCore facility, I successfully applied my skills to help run the facility at high-capacity. My main missions were 1) ensure all instruments were working properly (troubleshooting and monthly maintenance), 2) properly trained new users as well we keeping all users up-to-date with the latest standards, 3) daily sorting operations, 4) helped scientist with flow cytometry data analysis and 5) kept abreast of the latest flow technology

In addition to the facility lab work, I also managed all administrative aspects of the Core: budget, data management., etc...

The facility included:
Three FACS Canto II™ with three lasers and ten parameters
Two FACS ARIA II™: four lasers and fifteen parameters
One FACS LSR-FORTESSA™ with four lasers, eighteen color analyzer
One FACS LSR II™ with four lasers, eighteen color analyzer

The Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) is among the top immunological basic science research centers in the world. Scientists at BIIR most particularly concentrate their efforts on the study of dendritic cells, rare cells that turn on and regulate immune responses with the goal of bringing relief to diseases involving the immune system.
In the Baylor I'm working on the elaboration of HIV Vaccine, I study T cells responses induced by the vaccine in the DALIA trial (dendritic cell and lipopeptide-induced immunity against AIDS)
Technical that I am using regularly are Cell culture (PBMCs, T cells and DCs) and Flow Cytometry (Canto2, Fortessa, LSR2)

In the BIIR, I was working on DCs Targetting with fusion protein. I presented this study in "AIDS Vaccine 2009" in Paris (scolarship and an oral presentation).
Here is the abstract:
http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/S3/O46
The manuscript is in progress

I have been integrated in the GEMI laboratory (Experiment Genetics of Infectious Diseases) UMR2724 IRD/CNRS for 6 months (My tutors were Franck Prugnolle, PhD and Patrick Durand PhD)
We developed microsatellite marker for Plasmodium falciparum.
Then a study of these microsatellite on samples of French Guiana was done to known the distribution of "population" of this parasite in this region.