One of goals of the research lab I worked in during this past summer is to understand the process of wound healing and the inflammatory response that is induced during tissue injury and tissue regeneration.  One of the analysis methods we often use in our research lab is called absolute quantitative real-time PCR (qR-T PCR).  This method is used to measure changes in gene expression.  An important part of this analysis method requires an external cDNA standard to accurately quantitate these changes in gene expression.  This past summer our lab spent several weeks generating and characterizing an external standard to use in our qR-T PCR studies.  Using this new standard, we are currently investigating the effects of the dengue surface protein on chondrocytes, the cells that form cartilage tissue.  In this project we want to understand what role the dengue virus protein has in causing cartilage tissue inflammation.  A second project in our lab seeks to understand how the wound healing and inflammatory response processes influence cornea tissue regeneration.  By the end of the summer we were successful at generating useful data in support of both projects.