Smooth Seas Never Made Skilled Researchers: A Perspective on Cell Death

 

Brandon Chen is a rising senior majoring in Biology. He was awarded a Spring 2018 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on proteins in cancer cells under Dr. Lawrence Boise. 

Research is a constant interplay between breaking known knowledge and establishing new knowledge. The molecular biology textbook you read today can be outdated at this moment when you’re reading this post. These incessant challenges of what we know, and the pursuit of truth are the motivations that drive me into research. I am curious about the cell, the grandiose interconnectivity that drives cellular functions, and molecular mechanisms that make a cell a cell!  

I was fortunate enough to find an amazing lab placement here at Emory to fulfill my dream of dissecting and analyzing cellular functions. The Boise lab over at the Winship Cancer Institute is a cell biology/cancer biology lab that studies apoptosis, the process of how cell dies, and multiple myeloma, a cancer involving antibody secreting plasma cells. I am particularly interested in studying the delicate balance of cellular death processes since it would be great if we could just turn on all these “death switches” in the cancer cells. However, the solution is simply not that intuitive. If we happen to trigger too much cell death, then all the cells will die, and that is usually what happens when patients are treated with chemotherapy. The patients will suffer from agonizing side effects due to the death of normal cells in addition to cancer cells. Therefore, it is of significant importance for us to understand how the cell dies and target the death of cancer cells. 

Inside a cell there are two counteracting types of proteins, one that drives survival and one antagonizes their activity and activates cell death. My specific project focuses on a protein that is important in nullifying the death-triggering proteins and the amplification of it leads to drug resistance in various cancer cells. Particularly, I study how specific mutations in the pro-survival protein, Mcl-1, can alter its ability to protect the cell from dying or cause more death. Thanks to the URP Independent Grant for Spring 2018, I have been able to support my work in the lab with some sophisticated procedures.  

During my time at the Boise lab, I have encountered several ups and downs. Since I am using a new model that hasn’t been tested by any of our lab members before, I was venturing into a new territory. It is both exciting and also intimidating at first, but I realized this feeling of discovery and ground breaking is why I love science and research! It is undoubtedly frustrating when my experiments did not work, but it was way more valuable from troubleshooting and learning where I can improve. As a scientist-in-training, I was extremely blessed that Dr. Boise could give me an independent project to work with. It is a great opportunity to let my scientific brain wander and explore areas that intrigues me. Having this degree of independence is a leisure that few undergraduates can indulge, and I am grateful that Dr. Boise and all the members of the Boise lab can provide a nurturing environment for me to ask question and pitch in ideas for my project. In the end, what makes a great scientist is his or her curiosity, and we are here to decode the mystery of life. 

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Independent Research Grants.