Sharon Stranford studies factors that influence the development of acquired immune deficiency. She and the undergraduate students who work in her research lab employ a mouse model of AIDS (MAIDS) in which some strains of mice develop immune deficiency following exposure to Murine Leukemia Virus (MuLV). This allows them to compare the early immune response patterns of MAIDS-susceptible and MAIDS-resistant mice for clues to immune pathways that bias towards resolution versus immunodeficiency. This is done using a combination of techniques, including comparative gene expression, flow cytometric analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISAs) and fluorescence microscopy.