En-gene-ering

"Okay I did the four in the first row, your turn."

I snapped out of my stupor and switched seats with my project partner and waited for my eyes to adjust to the blinding glare of the monitor he was working on. As my project partner and fellow intern and volunteer at Henry Ford Hospital's Neurology Research Department and I switched seats in the dark microscopy room, I had two thoughts. One was of how many more assays or cell samples we still needed to take pictures of and count the cells in. The other was of the implications of the data we were currently collecting from the samples we had spent two weeks preparing.

We sat in that dark room for hours, painstakingly adjusting settings on the microscope and counting the cells in each of our sample. When we weren't in this cramped room, hoping that no one would suddenly open the door and throw off the sensitive machine and ruin our images, we sat in front of a lab hood, dying cells with different indicators or watched as our lab mentor cared for the mice he was using for his projects. This went on for about six and a half weeks.

Fortunately, by the end of my internship, the bevy of tests we had performed on the four different samples of glioma cells yielded the results my partner and I had hoped for. For context, a glioma is a brain tumor known for its exceptionally destructive and invasive nature. Our project wanted to figure out if there is a more effective form of treatment for the tumor than what currently exists. Currently, patients who have glioma have to endure many rounds of extensive and exhausting chemotherapy that have a low chance of fully eliminating the tumor. 

Conventional surgery techniques are also ineffective--at a certain point in its growth, a glioma will have buried and anchored itself so securely to the surrounding tissue that it cannot be fully removed and will simply regenerate from the cells left behind after surgery. A patient may have to undergo many subsequent surgeries if the initial one is unsuccessful. Due to these factors, the mortality rate for those affected by glioma is high.

Because the typical treatment for glioma is both harsh and rarely successful, scientists and researchers have been looking for alternatives for several years now. The project we helped collect data for focused on the general goal of inducing genetic change using principles of biochemistry in order to create a gentler and more successful form of therapy. From reading up on previous studies (which our lab mentor insisted we also read when we weren't working), our lab mentor picked a specific kind of genetic material named microRNA-145 to test with.

Here is a picture of the distinct components of microRNA-145.

Our research showed that increasing the amount of microRNA-145 near the glioma can almost completely stop growth of the glioma if the increase is induced soon enough. This does not, however, mean that this mechanism doesn't work for glioma that is in a later stage of growth. Increasing the amount of microRNA-145 can halt the invasion or spread and movement of the tumor into neighboring brain or spinal tissue. While not necessarily a full cure for glioma quite yet, it is nevertheless promising.

Genetic engineering, however, is not limited to just medical innovation. In fact, the practice is much older and the developments I have discussed in this post are relatively recent--less than five years old. Frederick Griffith established the foundation for genetic engineering with experiments in 1928 that helped us understand the basic nature of genes and DNA. Since its potential was discovered, genetic engineering has made many other important breakthroughs such as the "Flavr-Savr" tomato (a tomato designed to remain ripe longer) in 1987.

Many of the tomatoes that we eat today are designed to remain fresh longer using modified versions of the techniques originally developed by researchers at Calgene in 1987. We come into contact with genetic engineering daily!

In the last decade however, genetic research has helped spur more medical innovation than anything else. Research into this specific kind of genetic engineering (controlling the amount of product a certain microRNA is yielding) has yielded fruitful results. Aside from cancer therapy, this method of genetic engineering has also been proven to be successful in treating genetic diseases such as Feingold syndrome. It has also determined a possible cause of hereditary cardiovascular disease that causes abnormal enlargement of the heart and fatal clotting. Research is currently under way to see if this knowledge can be used to formulate a cure for the disease itself. Based on its current trajectory, genetic engineering promises to have many positive benefits in the future.

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I am currently a senior at DCDS planning to study public health and international relations in college with aspirations to become a doctor.