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100
Volunteers
1
Hours
UN Sustainable
Development Goal
3
Good Health and Well-Being
Node Code Breakers | Citizen Science
4/15/24 - 5/14/24
Cincinnati, OH, USA
National Needs
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  • The science team behind 'Node Code Breakers is looking for patterns in lymph nodes and working at King's College London. We are mainly computational scientists, trying to identify patterns in many different biological systems that are associated with breast cancer. One major focus of our work is a type of bean-like structure called lymph nodes.

     

    The human body contains around 500-600 of these bean-shaped organs which make up the so-called lymphatic system. These nodes, mostly located in our neck or under our arms, contain specialised cells that help us to sense and attack foreign invaders like viruses or cancer cells that do not belong in a healthy body.

     

    When a lymph node senses something foreign, it undergoes structural changes. Several small or large dots become visible within the lymph node, signalling a location where new immune cells are produced. These patches are called germinal centres. Some immune cells derived from these germi nal centres will produce markers called Immunoglobulins, which they will use to label foreign molecules. This labelling tactic allows killer immune cells to easily track down and destroy their prey. Another type of immune cell produced in the germinal centres helps the immune system to remember which molecules are foreign. So, if in future our immune system encounters these foreign molecules again, it can then act immediately to produce labels and eliminate the invader much more rapidly.

     

    We have found that the appearance of these dots (germinal centres) in lymph nodes can help to identify breast cancer patients who will overall live longer. Over the years, our hospitals have collected many lymph nodes from many breast cancer patients. This is very useful for our research, as we can study the differences in number, shape and the location of these dots in large numbers of lymph nodes. All this information helps us to understand more about a patient's disease, and how the lymph node reacts to the presence of foreign molecules.

     

    We have collected a series of lymph node images and now we need your help to identify the germinal centres within them.