Worms Eye View: Gene Choices and Development
Worm’s Eye View: Gene Choices and Development
Anna Zinovyeva, assistant professor of biology, studies how genes are regulated using the transparent worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, commonly referred to as C. elegans. Most genes make proteins that have essential functions in cells. To produce a healthy organism, whether it is a worm or a human, genes must be precisely turned on and off to make just the right amount of protein at just the right time. Since all cells in an organism contain the same genes, gene regulation is what is responsible for creating all different types of cells such as heart or skin cells. Zinovyeva’s laboratory performs foundational research to understand how these processes work.
“The foundational research using worms examines both how normal cells regulate gene activation and deactivation to produce a healthy organism and how loss of this regulation leads to developmental disorders and diseases, including cancer. Gene regulation is complex, where many processes must coordinate to produce an organism. Many of these gene regulatory processes are conserved, meaning that they are important whether we are talking about a tiny human baby or little worms that hatch. We are interested in deciphering these processes.”
Diseases such as cancer deregulate genes as well. “Things must be precisely regulated to maintain healthy adult cells and tissues. Loss of that regulation may lead to disease development and can contribute to disease progression.”
Zinovyeva aims to understand the gene regulation by microRNAs—tiny RNAs that very effectively turn off genes. This includes understanding how the cellular machinery decides which microRNAs are kept and used, and which get eliminated from the cell. “A wrong choice is often associated with disease, including cancer. We are trying to identify how this choice is made by healthy cells. Once we know that, we hope that in the future we can prevent the wrong molecular choice from happening in the first place or fix it in pre-disease or disease conditions. We are excited about our findings, and we are making progress in understanding this process.”
“The Johnson Cancer Research Center has been very instrumental in helping our research. The JCRC helped fund a cytometer which has been critical to the work with microRNAs. They also recently funded one of our undergraduate research students. The undergraduate student support provided by the Cancer Center is an excellent opportunity for students to get involved in research, especially students who want to pursue medicine or medical research. Students strongly benefit from becoming closely involved with the hands-on research and learn a number of critical skills in the process.”
With basic science come challenges. “I would say, not just in our field but in science in general, hypotheses are tested through experiments and experiments produce data. But new findings always lead to more questions.” This cycle is also what drives Zinovyeva and her lab in their work. “I think the most rewarding thing about science is seeing and learning things for the first time. It’s like exploration, being the first one to discover something new is incredibly fulfilling. It is also rewarding to see students get excited and interested in this never-ending exploration of the molecular world.”