Good things come in threes
For the last few months, the biggest question among college undergraduates has been about summer plans. When people asked me what my plans would be, it was difficult to come up with one simple answer. One response was “the Howard Hughes”. But that drew many blank faces- non-Dukies didn’t associate that with an eight-week research internship. Instead, that name brings to mind Hollywood glamour, a playboy personality and outlandish airplanes- there was no reason why I would simply be doing “the Howard Hughes”. Another response was “stem cell research”. This one often elicited oohs and aahs from the audience, even if they weren't necessarily warranted. And if I wanted the summer plans conversation to end rather quickly I could respond with “the role of specific proteins in the Hedgehog and Wnt signaling pathways in the maintenance of cancer cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia”.
In reality, every response has come together to describe my summer. Howard Hughes, once the richest man in the world, established the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1953 with the goal of trying to understand “the genesis of life itself” (and save millions in taxes). Now the second-wealthiest philanthropic organization in the United States, HHMI donates millions of dollars to biomedical research every year and funds undergraduate research programs around the country. The Research Fellows program at Duke places students in a variety of life science research labs on campus. I am working in Tannishtha Reya’s Pharmacology and Cancer Biology lab. An associate professor in the Duke School of Medicine, Dr. Reya is also co-director of the Stem Cell Research Program at Duke. Her lab’s research focuses on signaling pathways in hematopoietic stem cells, such as the Hedgehog and Wnt pathways, that may lead to clues as to how cancer (specifically myelogenous leukemia) cells renew themselves. The idea is the research going on right now will someday lead to the creation of pharmaceutical drugs that can prevent the proliferation of leukemia cells as well as cure them. Maybe those same drugs will be applicable to other cancers, like pancreatic and breast cancers. It’s pretty amazing that research conducted in this lab and others around the world could potentially save thousands of lives in the future.
Here's a idea of pathways and lineages in hematopoietic cells:
Despite the serious nature of the work in the Reya lab, the lab atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed. I’ve been around for a few months helping out, but I never really got to meet the guys that make up the lab team. They all come from different backgrounds and are at different stages in their careers, but they get along like the good friends they are. Mark Fereshteh (pictured below) is my mentor- you’ll be hearing more about him soon.
The desk of a post-doc:
And my desk:
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And Mark thugging it out (yes, that's a Ferrari key chain in his pocket):
Basically, Dr. Reya’s lab is a fun place where there are plenty of opportunities to learn a lot about biomedical research and make a significant contribution to science. Howard Hughes, stem cell research and cell signaling pathways have all come together to make this a very exciting summer. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for further updates!
