I began working in the Knight Laboratory 20 years ago and developed expertise in DNA sequence analysis. In addition to performing DNA sequence analyses in the Core DNA Sequencing Facility of Stritch School of Medicine, I work on the hematopoietic stem cell project, to investigate BCR and TCR repertoires. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is used to treat leukemia patients, but because of the low numbers of hematopoietic stem cells in UCB, immune reconstitution of the immune system of adults who receive these transplants is slow. By CDR3 spectratype analysis, I measure the diversity of TCR and BCR repertoires to determine the level of immune reconstitution of patients transplanted with UCB. In collaboration with Dr. Phong Le in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, we are developing a SCID mouse model for transplantation of UCB hematopoietic stem cells. These mice will be used to test various conditions of transplantation and identify one that leads to rapid reconstitution of normal TCR and BCR repertoires. These conditions will then be tested in humans to improve the clinical outcome of adults transplanted with UCB.