Luis Acevedo Soto

Luis Miguel Acevedo Soto, rising junior at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection and the leading cause of cervical cancer, with over 200,000 women diagnosed annually in the U.S. There are more than 200 different strains of HPV , and currently there is a lack of the cost-effective, high throughput diagnostics porotocol. This study aims to develop a new diagnostic assay for HPV typing that greatly increases the number of patient samples that can be assayed within a given budget and timeline.

These two months I spent doing research at the Broad Institute changed my life. The familial atmosphere and camaraderie are present in every corner of this wonderful place. I grew as a scientist by developing my teamwork and critical thinking skills. Thanks to the mentorship of everyone who supported me throughout this process, I was able to exceed the expectations I had of myself. Additionally, I met amazing people who helped me grow personally by teaching me to see life from many perspectives. At the Broad, you gain not only incredible scientific experience but also the opportunity to understand the world through the diverse individuals you encounter, each coming from different places and having unique stories. To achieve this, we have developed a method using barcoded primers targeting a conserved region of the HPV genome to generate amplicons from cervical swabs that can be pooled for highly multiplexed Illumina sequencing. Custom scripts are used to demultiplex raw sequencing data into individual samples that are then aligned to a sequence database of known HPV types.

Preliminary results have accurately identified six HPV strains from patient samples, and ongoing efforts are focused on expanding the assay's sensitivity. Preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of reliably distinguishing among different strains across multiple patient samples simultaneously. By being able to screen larger numbers of patients, this assay has the potential to facilitate development of new and improved vaccines, preventing the spread of the virus worldwide.

Project: Development of a highly multiplexed amplicon sequencing based diagnostic for distinguishing Human Papillomavirus types

Mentors: Charlie Low, Brittany Berdy and Jonathan Livny, Infectious Diseases and Microbiome Program