This week’s issue of Nature includes a special Outlook supplement, Lenses on Biology. The 5 lenses are essays adapted from chapters in a new, interactive undergraduate textbook, Principles of Biology, published by Nature Education. The essays focus on what we know about cancer, stem cells, synthetic biology, ocean health and climate change.
To tie in with this special, we asked five biological scientists at different levels of their careers – from high school student to post doc – to tell their personal stories about why they decided to study one of the five featured subjects. Enjoy this closer look at what motivates scientists!
Our first post is by masters student Vince Macri, he discusses his interest in cancer and how the newest discoveries in biology can be used in patient care.
Vince Macri has a B.A. in biology from Brown University and is currently earning a masters in biotechnology from Columbia University. At Brown his research efforts focused on in vitro embryonic chick cartilage cell differentiation and gene expression. Now he creates, designs and implements software for the purpose of neurorehabilitation following acquired brain injury. Along the way, he had a career playing professional ice hockey in North America and Europe, which he left to pursue his interests in patient care and medicine.
I once explained to a stroke patient that adulthood carries with it internalized meaning of the word “failure.” This particular patient had suffered a right hemispheric stroke 7 years earlier, leaving him with left hemiplegia and visual impairment. At the moment of my explanation, he was sitting in front of a computer screen, becoming frustrated that he could not control the movement of an on-screen virtual extremity designed as a simulation of his left arm.
I was trying to explain that, as infants, we do not perceive failure with each unsuccessful attempt, for example not managing to pick up a spoon. Infants simply make adjustments and repeat the effort until sensing that spoon is in my hand. As adults, we do not remember the sheer number of repetitions required to master control of our bodies. Adulthood includes numerous self-formed expectations, occasional failure to achieve those expectations and, at times, failure to control our environment. Both kinds of failures can evoke strong negative reactions which are unproductive unless met with the same perseverance of the un-self-conscious child.
I first came to meet people like the man noted above through my work with a neurotechnology start-up company devoted to helping survivors of stroke and traumatic brain injury recover, i.e. re-learn motor and related cognitive functions. I am a co-inventor and designer of virtual extremity video game-like simulations which provide an intermediate step between mere visualization and actual physical movement (the latter being variably impaired in most stroke and traumatic brain injury patients). Having worked with victims of stroke, I became convinced that I wanted to learn the practice of medicine in order to continue to work directly with patients, both hands-on and by creating novel tools for helping them.
I joined a biotechnology masters program intending to understand the newest discoveries in biology and the ways in which these discoveries were being or could be implemented in practice. I started with many questions about neurorehabilitation. For example, can we illuminate common molecular pathways which govern axon degeneration after stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurodegenerative conditions? If so, how can we intervene to prevent, retard or reverse these processes? Can drug-based (“inside-out”) therapies be used in conjunction with simulations (“outside-in” approaches) to minimize damage or enhance recovery?
Combining computer graphics and neurotechnology is just one example of a niche created in the rapidly changing world of science and medicine. Advancements in fields such as molecular genetics and biology are creating ever more intersections between previously distinct fields.
Part of my focus this term (Spring 2012) is on the molecular biology of cancer, a field which thrives on collaboration between various disciplines. Novel drug-delivery systems, medical devices and techniques increasingly allow us to engage with and manipulate the various environments of malignant tumors. For example, insight into molecular markers expressed frequently or exclusively by cancer cells allows for targeting of nanoparticles and drug conjugates to tumors and tumor vasculature. Such targeted therapies have the potential to increase the effectiveness and reduce the side effects of drugs to combat cancer.
Source: Researchers Use Gold Nanoparticles as Drug Carrier in New Cancer Treatment
Other cancer research is exploring pathways involved in the ability of cancer cells to liberate themselves from a primary tumor and colonize distal tissue (termed metastasis), leading to high-grade malignancy. Preventing or re-directing that process will involve further investigation into the ways in which metastatic dissemination is different from more normal development of cells or immune processes such as inflammation.
Understanding the complexity of cancers is an ongoing mission and the subjects mentioned here are, of course, only a fraction of possible targets for study. Estimates put the number of human cells in the body at 100 trillion, and each one of those is a bio-chemical-electrical factory and signal-processing station. Imagining the number of possible interactions and microenvironments among these cells gives us an idea of the investigational potential for scientists, physicians, engineers and business people with varying skills and interests.
All of this is, for me, one of the great attractions of science and medicine. The rapid pace of discoveries underscores the opportunity for unique, creative work in understanding and caring for the complexity of the human body. Simultaneously, the interface of biology and information technology is making scientific discoveries more accessible to researchers and clinicians alike and playing a role in how we view computational and biological systems.
Beyond any particular scientific or medical endeavor, I believe that the most alluring quality of science and medicine is the opportunity to touch lives, to repair and change them and at times to save them. In many fields, we will benefit by the infant’s persevering approach to failure, since so many fields are themselves in their infancy. The frontiers of science and medicine are certainly not free of error, yet success in these fields is achieved through recognition of productive failures and by using them to direct our future efforts.
Source: Khan Academy. A very basic cancer video: