Anneliese Ahrens

Author: Anneliese Ahrens | Major: Biology | Semester: Summer 2022

Hi! I’m Anneliese Ahrens and am studying biology through the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Science. I began research in summer 2022 with my mentor, Dr. Donald Catanzaro. We are analyzing an enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) test that detects antigens in blood samples in order to identify a potental coccidioidomycosis infection, also known as Valley fever.

Coccidioides is a fungus that usually grows in endemic regions such as California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico due to the warmth and lack of moisture. If this fungus is aspirated it can lead to pulmonary infection and other health issues including disseminated disease. With coccidioidomycosis becoming more prevalent in non-endemic regions, further research on antigen tests allows physicians to diagnose patients with an accurate test. Because coccidioidomycosis symptoms are often mistaken for a respiratory virus, and a misdiagnoses increases the risk of mortality, it is important that communities outside of the endemic regions have access to tests and are aware of the disease. The ELISA test is used to evaluate an interaction between an antigen and an antibody, and will allow us to determine if there is an infection in the sample if the galactomannan antigen is present.

When I began to investigate what research topic would be most meaningful for me to investigate, cocci stuck out because of the increasing prevalence in communities that are unaware of the disease and its complications. Dr. Catanzaro has extensive research in tuberculosis and after he proposed this topic, we quickly began researching other tests and found that this would be the first analysis of this galactomannan blood antigen tests to detect C. immitis and C.posadasii. Dr. Catanzaro collected positive samples through the Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California, in their Valley Fever Institute. Since cocci can be affected by age, weight, ethnicity and many more factors, these samples are valuable due to the diversity as well as the population being in a highly endemic region. It is important that we have negative tests to evaluate as well so that we can determine the specificity of the test, so we are holding off on running the analysis until we receive negative cocci samples. We are hoping the results line up very closely with true positives or true negatives. A diagnostic accuracy test will be used to give us the accuracy of the test. As we look forward to running our test and finding the results, I have been looking into other ELISA tests that have been used for detection of coccidioidomycosis and training to run our own.

Through the Honors College Research Grant, I have been exposed to many opportunities in research and have been able to explore my topic with complete focus. My mentor has been able to provide me with test samples to practice ELISA and train properly so that we can be sure the real test is done correctly. I am very excited to continue research and look forward to uncovering our results that will benefit many communities.