Biomedical Beat Blog – National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Follow the process of discovery
This time of year, many creepy crawlies take center stage to frighten people of all ages. To celebrate Halloween, we’ve conjured up a slideshow of fascinating but spooky species that NIGMS-funded scientists study. Some of these creatures drink blood like vampires, while others—frogs, worms, flies, and salamanders—are perfect cauldron ingredients for a witch’s brew. Check out the slideshow—if you dare!
Continue reading “Slideshow: Creepy Crawlies”
It might sound like a science fiction author made up genetic engineering, but it’s a real tool researchers use in the laboratory! A gene is a segment of DNA that codes for a protein. The information within a gene directs the building of a protein, block by block, through the process of gene expression. For a variety of reasons, including learning about certain cellular processes, scientists use genetic engineering in the lab to manipulate a cell’s genes and the proteins they encode.
One of the most commonly used genetic engineering techniques is called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), named for the odd, repeating sequences that researchers found in bacterial DNA in 1987.
Eventually, researchers discovered that these sequences are part of a bacterial immune system. (Just like humans, bacteria are susceptible to viral infections!) Some bacteria are able to insert short sequences of DNA from viruses that previously infected them into their own genome, allowing them to “remember” and more quickly recognize that virus in the future. If the invader tries to attack again, the bacterium recognizes and kills it by chopping up the part of its DNA that matches the “memory” using a special type of protein, an enzyme called CRISPR-Associated (Cas) protein. Our own immune systems also have the ability to remember pathogens through our adaptive immune response.
Continue reading “What Is CRISPR?”
Sepsis is a condition that can occur when a person’s immune system responds inappropriately to an insult, such as an infection or injury. This condition occurs unpredictably and can be life threatening. Of the 1.7 million adults in the U.S. who develop sepsis every year, at least 350,000 die as a result.
Have you wondered what controls the most basic functions of our bodies, like breathing, moving, and sleeping? Chemicals called neurotransmitters play a central role. Neurotransmitters pass messages from one nerve cell to another, and sometimes to muscles or glands. These messages may:
“I remember thinking in my first cellular biology class how impossibly beautiful it is that there are tiny machines in our bodies doing work,” says Morgan DeSantis, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. We talked with Dr. DeSantis about how her career in science almost didn’t happen, how happy she is that it did, and what she’s learning through her research on molecular machines.
Q: How did you become interested in science?
A: I wasn’t remotely interested in science in high school—I was a self-identified artist. I went to the College of Wooster in Ohio with the sole purpose of studying art and doing pottery. But one day during my freshman year, a box with all the pieces I made throughout the year fell, and everything inside broke. It’s hard to describe the emotions I felt that day, but something changed in me, and I realized pottery wasn’t for me. I couldn’t start the projects over, and I didn’t want to drop out and move back home. So, I decided to become a medical doctor.
Continue reading “Motor Proteins and Microscopy: Q&A With Morgan DeSantis”
The job opening at Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) in Ponce, Puerto Rico—home to great coral reefs—seemed like a perfect fit for Caroline B. Appleyard, Ph.D., given that scuba diving was one of her favorite hobbies. She only intended to stay for a short time, but now, more than 25 years later, Dr. Appleyard is a professor of physiology and pharmacology and program director of the NIGMS-funded Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE) at PHSU.
An Interest in Inflammation
Growing up in Scotland, Dr. Appleyard was captivated by a children’s show with science demonstrations that helped kids and teens understand the world around them. She enjoyed studying biology and chemistry, and in high school, joined a lab at a local university that studied pharmacology. Her lab project studying the medicine aspirin ultimately solidified her interest in a career in research.
Continue reading “Advancing Endometriosis Research With Caroline Appleyard”
The immune system is designed to closely monitor the body for signs of intruders that may cause infection. But what happens if it malfunctions? Overactive and underactive immune systems can both have negative effects on your health.
Continue reading “How Can the Immune System Go Awry?”
Claira Sohn credits her grandfather with sparking her interest in science. Although he never studied science at a 4-year university due to financial limitations, he took many community college classes and worked in chemistry labs developing products such as hair dyes and dissolvable stitches. “Every morning, my grandfather would take me to school, and we’d stop to get orange juice and a cookie and talk about science. When I was in elementary school, he bought me a book about quantum mechanics written for kids,” she says. “He inspired me to ask questions and encouraged me to go to college.”
Claira enrolled at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff after graduating high school. She majored in biomedical sciences and planned to become a medical doctor until her microbiology professor talked to her about the possibility of a research career. “That was an epiphany for me, because while I knew that there was research going on in the world, I didn’t realize there could be a place for me there,” Claira says. During her junior year, she joined the lab of Naomi Lee, Ph.D., where she first experienced what it felt like to be a researcher.
Continue reading “Claira Sohn Cultivates Neurons and Diversity in the STEM Community”
“I hope that one day I’m able to increase our understanding of evolution, and I also hope to increase access to research. I want others to know that this space is open to people who look like me, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and who are underrepresented in the sciences,” says Nkrumah Grant, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate (postdoc) in microbiology and molecular genetics at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing.
Dr. Grant’s work receives support from the NIGMS Diversity Supplement Program (DSP), which is designed to improve the recruitment and training of promising researchers from diverse backgrounds. Diversifying the scientific workforce can lead to new approaches to research questions, increased recruitment of diverse volunteers for clinical studies, an improved capacity to address health disparities, and many other benefits.
Continue reading “Diversity Supplement Program Paves the Way for Talented Researchers”
The year 2022 marked 50 years since the creation of the NIGMS Human Genetic Cell Repository (HGCR) at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, New Jersey. The NIGMS HGCR consists of cell lines and DNA samples with a focus on those from people with rare, heritable diseases. “Many rare diseases now have treatments because of the samples in the NIGMS HGCR,” says Nahid Turan, Ph.D., Coriell’s chief biobanking officer and co-principal investigator of the NIGMS HGCR. She gives the example of a rare disease advocacy group who worked with the NIGMS HGCR to establish a cell line several decades ago. It was used to identify a gene associated with the disease, which aided in the development of five treatments that have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Researchers have also studied NIGMS HGCR’s samples to help advance knowledge of basic biology and genetics, and even to support the development of a vaccine for a deadly virus.
Continue reading “Propelling Rare Disease Research for More Than 50 Years”