Describe what the data show and provide some discussion of how each of the costimulatory ligands (B7.1, B7.2 and CTLA-4) influence T cell activation. Suggest other experiments that might be used to examine T cell activation.

This is an essay-type assignment so we require you to introduce, present and interpret and discuss your data in the format you would see in a published research article. (An example article is Yang et al., 2018, Immunology 155, 263-272 but clearly this has a lot more results than you have.) This needs to be submitted in a word document/PDF via MyAberdeen (max word count 2000).

1. Provide an abstract (summary) and an introduction with some background on T cell activation and the need for costimulation. Also include a section on why IL-2 is a useful cytokine to measure as a marker of T cell activation.

2. Write out the methods as you would see written in a research paper.

3. Results: Construct a standard curve using 4 cycle semi-log graph paper (provided). Use the X axis for IL-2 concentration (pg/mL) and the Y axis for the spectrophotometer values (label the axis OD450 nm).

4. Use the standard curve to calculate how much IL-2 has been produced in each of your treatment samples. You can combine replicate samples to provide a mean and SEM for each sample.

5. Plot the data as a bar chart so that each treatment can be compared.

6. Describe what the data show and provide some discussion of how each of the costimulatory ligands (B7.1, B7.2 and CTLA-4) influence T cell activation. Suggest other experiments that might be used to examine T cell activation.

7. Provide a references section

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