At my workplace, I involved indirectly with immunology research work. One of the project was, study on immunomodulatory system. The researchers try to find potential drug substance to modulate the human immune system. I know only a little about immunology, as my first degree study was in Plant Biotechnology. So, I think it's better for me to learn little by little about immunology.

After we get the volunteer's blood, we will mix it with a number of chemical to separate the blood to be become layers of cells, with different density. In this video, I mix the blood with Phosphate Buffer Saline (PBS), mix it with Dextran. Leave the solution for 30 minutes, so that the red blood cells will sediment at the bottom of the tube.

Normally we will need around 10 to 20 mL of blood. Some experiment that I encountered, it required as much as 40mL of blood. Just as how we give blood for fitness level test like to check cholesterol level, that's how we get the blood for our research. This 1 minute video of me donating 10mL of blood for research. First attempt on the right hand failed.

I want to share with you a little bit of what I went through during the  3 weeks training in Karachi. This is a brief article on how isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells was carried out. Blood from healthy donor, mixed with media, then layered on gradient-density medium. After that, it will be centrifuged and it will give us layers of cells in the tube. We will take the the layers containing PBMCs.