November 04, 2009
The alphabet soup of cancer
Bcl, Bax, EGFR, Ras, CDK, pINK...the proteins involved in cancer seem like an alphabet soup. But yesterday the Chemistry of Cancer class highlighted what they've about the genes and proteins associated with cancer.
In the 1970's, John F. Kennedy declared "war on cancer", and the search for a "magic bullet" began. As we've learned more about how cells sense their environment and decide to grow (or commit "cellular suicide"), we've also learned that cancer is not a single disease, so there isn't a single cure. For a cell to become cancerous, there must be at least mutations in two different types of proteins--one to trigger inappropriate cell growth, as well as the loss of a growth repressor. These mutations usually occur in proteins involved in one of three main processes in the cell: signal transduction, which is the way the cell senses environmental cues to grow; the cell cycle, which is the process by which a cell divides into two daughter cells; and apoptosis, or programmed cell death of cells with problems in their DNA replication or other stages of cell division.
The ten members of the class each focused on a single protein involved in cancer. They developed a Proteopedia page, highlighting both the structure and function of their proteins. They presented their results yesterday at lunch.
Their findings are also available to the wider scientific audience through the pages they authored on Proteopedia. If you'd like to learn more about their projects, visit the class Proteopedia page.
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October 27, 2009
Free lunch?
There's a running joke on campus that if you try hard enough, you can eat lunch all week by going to seminars.
That's true this week. And if you've been doing it, you heard some amazing speakers!
Last Friday, Michael Hopkins from the University of Chicago talked about building artificial photosynthesis systems from inorganic materials.
On Monday, Jacob Hale from Purdue University spoke on "Molecular Motion: Interpreting the Dance." His talk highlighted molecular motion of single proteins in a membrane using both experimental data and modeling techniques to refine our understanding of how membranes "work."
Today, Martin Gruebele from the University of Illinois gave a talk entitled "How molecules resemble spacecraft, and how proteins fold in cells." The leap from transition states of simple molecules to protein folding may seem like a huge one, but Dr. Gruebele's analogy of using the gravitational force of planets to minimize the energy needed to take a longer but more efficient route made it all fit together.
And on Thursday, Jeffery Elmendorf from the Indiana University School of Medicine will be talking about "Membrane cholesterol and the Road to Diabetes Type 2." I don't know what's on the lunch menu, but there may be some irony if we're eating pizza and drinking soda during this one!
We are privileged to be able to host such a list of quality speakers. It brings depth and relevance to what we teach in class, and helps all of us keep up with cutting edge research.
What's amazing is that these are just the science talks that happened this week. It doesn't include the African Art Exhibit and associated talks, the Multicultural Festival events, an Ancient Greek sculpture and culture, or Moot Court Finals.
So Wednesday is the only day you're on your own for lunch. Use it wisely!
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October 14, 2009
Instrumentation and integration
Tuesday the Chemistry of Cancer class donned disposable white lab coats and safety glasses in their visit to Endocyte, a start-up chemotherapy targeting company in West Lafayette, IN. The visit was the culmination of seven weeks of learning about DNA mutation, signal transduction, cell cycle, and apoptosis…and where these processes go wrong in cancer cells. This involved integrating topics from biochemistry, cell biology, organic chemistry, and physiology.
Cancer therapeutic agents generally affect all dividing cells, including hair follicles, and epithelial cells which line the stomach and form your skin, leading to nasty side effects. Endocyte is trying to target chemotherapy and imaging agents specifically to the cancer cells, leading to greater efficacy and fewer side effects. We saw how all aspects of the process are integrated, from synthesizing, purifying, and analyzing potential compounds are to testing them in cells and animals for both specificity and effectiveness.
As part of the tour, Jeffrey Scott Nicoson '97 showed us the various analytical and separation instruments in the lab. At one point, one of the other Endocyte employees asked the students if they had ever submitted a sample for NMR.
Matt Routh ’09 commented, “yeah, I ran some on our 400 MHz this morning.” Our host was surprised to find out that not only did Wabash have a NMR spectrometer, but also the students regularly get to use it themselves, AND we have a higher powered instrument than they do!
Meanwhile, Nathan Line '10 appreciated the automatic chromatography system. He’s continuing a research project he started during his summer internship at The Ohio State University, and appreciated its time saving aspects...but understood the budgetary trade-offs.
The tour went an hour longer than we planned. We made it back for afternoon classes and labs just in time…but it was worth every minute.
This trip was made possible by the Know Indiana Grant from the Lilly Foundation.
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October 09, 2009
Many paths to summer research
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February 19, 2008
Global Warming...in the lab
Today the Energy class discussed passive solar heat and the greenhouse effect. To apply what they learned, they built their own solar houses, out of styrofoam shipping boxes and whatever else they thought was appropriate.
Many students chose to use water as a heat sink--this group went to the extreme and lined their house with a black plastic bag filled with water as a heat sink.
Other variables included the color of the box interior, use of reflective material on the inside of the lid, window size and window composition. One group omitted the window completely; while their gain to loss ratio was the highest, the absolute gain in temperature was the lowest. The most creative insulation was a fur hat!
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May 03, 2007
Tony Caldwell Presents Research at Experimental Biology 2007
Tony Caldwell - This weekend, I attended the Experimental Biology Conference in Washington, DC, from April 29 through May 1, 2007 with my research advisor, Dr. Ann Taylor. At this meeting, which was a combination of anatomy, biochemistry, nutrition, pathology, pharmacology, and physiology societies, I was able to present my research project, Investigation of MAPKKK-alpha Kinase Interactions with Phosphatase Mutants Using a Yeast Two-Hybrid Approach, to this group of over 18,000 people from around the world.On 
Saturday, I took part in the 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Achievement Award Poster Competition, which featured 113 undergraduate projects similar to my work. This was a wonderful experience to not only showcase what I had been working on from my summer research and current credit-based research at Wabash this past school year, but also to see all of the amazing projects other students are taking part in. I was able to interact with a lot of my fellow presenters that I had met at this session during other talks and presentations, as well as during some "free" time spent exploring the city. This was a judged competition, and as such, two judges in the cell signaling division rigorously questioned me, as well as various other students and conference participants. After taking part in this experience, I felt like I was really able to effectively communicate the work I had spent many hundreds of hours on, and it was definitely a rewarding experience.
On Monday afternoon, I again presented my poster, this time during the general session on phosphatases. While this competition was not judged, I had many more people come question and speak with me about my work. What amazed me about both presentations was my ability to speak to graduate-level researchers. I felt like I had really accomplished something in developing my ideas, understanding my work, and talking with others in this field about similar experiences. I thought back to many of my Wabash chemistry classmates and knew that they too could carry on highly detailed and skilled conversations with many of these experts in their various fields.
Outside of my presentations, I had three major highlights to this trip. The first was meeting Dr. Tony Hunter, who discovered tyrosine kinases, at a reception following his keynote address on Sunday. This was a major breakthrough in the 1980s and eventually led to the creation of cancer drugs that can inhibit these pathways and has saved thousands of lives. Also during this reception, I was able to meet Donald and Judith Voet, authors of our biochemistry textbook, Fundamentals of Biochemistry. We later went out to dinner with these two well-known authors in the biochemistry world and it was great to be able to say that I had the opportunity to meet them and have conversations with such great people!
The second highlight of my trip was interacting with a number of other undergraduates who were presenting their work from across the U.S. We not only were able to attend presentations and sessions together, but at night we went out to explore the city. Having spent a month this past summer living in DC, I served as the tour guide for the Mall, Washington Monument, Lincoln, Korean, and Vietnam memorials, as well as the White House. On our last night out, we went to the Young Experimental Scientists (YES) Reception and had a great time. It was amazing to see all of the work that they had done and to recognize how many amazing undergraduates are doing such complicated and difficult research. It also made me appreciate the opportunities that I have had and I plan on keeping in contact with a number of these people into my career.
The final highlight was speaking with several expert diabetes researchers about their work in the field and getting to gain a better understanding for current research trends. As I will be starting my career with Eli Lilly and Company in Diabetes Sales in just two weeks, it was a great opportunity for me to directly interact with academics who are experts in this field. I was able to gain a lot of knowledge from these men and women and know I will be able to apply it to my future work.
In conclusion, I had a wonderful time at this event and am very grateful for the funding that I received from the Undergraduate Research Committee. I hope that this type of program can fund many more Wabash men in their research over a broad range of topics, but especially those interested in attending the ASBMB Conference. Following a great experience in working with Dr. Taylor, I must thank her for her help and support, and hope that I can pass on all that I have learned from her to help the future of Wabash Chemistry.
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November 30, 2006
Wabash Chemistry Students Building up to National Meeting
Getting in the lab and working hard is only half the fun. Learning to effectively communicate research results to the larger scientific community and general public is also very important. One of the best ways Wabash students develop these skills is by participating in poster symposia at both the local and national level. This week, nearly eleven students submitted their abstracts for the 233rd American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition. This conference is the “Big Show” for chemists! This year’s spring meeting will be held during the week of March 25-29, in Chicago. The spring ACS meeting typically draws over 12,000 chemists from across the globe. Nearly 7,000 presentations are anticipated during the abstract submittal process, grouped into various symposia that highlight important research advances in a variety of fields ranging from biochemistry to nanotechnology.
In order to gear up for this big event, the chemistry students have been sharing their results with students and faculty, both here at Wabash and beyond. Near the beginning of this semester, the Chemistry Club co-sponsored a poster symposium in Hays Hall to spotlight the work that was accomplished during the summer research internship program on campus. Also, Wabash students that completed research off campus were invited to participate and share their experiences with students considering summer research at prestigious locations such as Cornell, the National Institutes of Health, or the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Most recently, the Chemistry Club organized a trip for students to present at the 7th Annual Indiana Local Section (ACS) Poster Symposium at Earlham College. Wabash had a great showing, with the largest number of posters presented at the symposium! Posters focused on everything from porous silicon research to virus-induced gene silencing. The students celebrated their successful presentations on the way back to Wabash by making a pit stop at BD's Mongolian Barbeque in Indianapolis. All of this hard work will pay off this spring when the group heads to Chicago to present at the ACS National Meeting!
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