I was initially struck by the beauty of Annina’s graphs used to analyse the characteristics of the thymic epithelial cells. Their beauty belies their function and cry out to be reappropriated.
Annina Graedel: The graph underlying the video “AIRE” is a detailed analysis of thymic epithelial cells. These cells are specialized in testing T cells in the thymus and deleting autoreactive cells that could cause autoimmune diseases. To create this graph I used a method called flow cytometry to look at various characteristics of these cells. Flow cytometry is a method where cells are labelled in a certain way and then analysed – in a way similar to a bar code scanner in the supermarket. In this manner we can scan the information of millions of cells and see how well-equipped these thymic epithelial cells are in testing T cells and preventing autoimmune diseases.
