Volume 1, Issue 3
December 2008
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ARIZONA
RESEARCH
LABORATORIES
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Director:
Dr. Michael Cusanovich
PO Box 210077
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077
cusanovi@u.arizona.edu
Media:
skhelsel@skhelsel.com
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Dr. Linda Restifo in Arizona Research Laboratory's (ARL) Division of Neurobiology received notice that she has been selected for funding by the Autism Speaks Foundation for a pilot project entitled, "Novel cell-based assay for autism-research and drug discovery." Additional information on the grant specifics is forthcoming. The award recognizes the promise of Restifo's highly unique and innovative methodology using fruit fly brains to screen for drugs that can change the shape of brain cells called neurons. In recently completed experiments, Restifo and her team have identified drugs that can straighten out curly mutant brain neurons as well as identifying other drugs that can increase curly neurons. Restifo is testing drugs already approved for other uses by the FDA. Seed funding for the autism project was from ARL's Center for Insect Science.
- The straightening of curly brain neurons may hold promise for increasing the cognitive functionality of children with mental retardation or autism. Curly neurons result from lack of a protein thought to be important to brain development.
- Increasing neuron curliness may hold promise for treatment of certain aggressive cancers, including malignant glioma. Drugs that make curly neurons super-curly may block fascin, a brain protein linked to the invasive behavior of certain tumors including malignant glioma.
Restifo is the first to use a primary neuron culture for drug screening of this type. She monitors the size and shape of individual brain cells that have been dissected from the brain of a developing fruit fly at the maggot stage and are allowed to grow in a laboratory culture dish. The changes are observed under the microscope three days later for changes the drug has caused in the size and shape of the neurons. The fruit fly brain has similar proteins and and developmental mechanisms to those in human brains. Additional information about Dr. Restifo's can be read here: Restifo Research.
>> ARL's Division of Neurobiology (ARLDN) is an academic and organized-research unit devoted to education and research on the development, organization, evolution, and function of nervous systems. Click on this link for more information on ARLDN.
ARL's Nuclear Reactor Laboratory's 50th birthday was honored by an invitation-only reception December 6 in the lab on campus. Headed by John Williams, the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory operates a nuclear reactor and two gamma-irradiation facilities in support of research and education and provides irradiation services for university and other regional users. Read the recent article about the 50th Birthday reception for the Lab in the Arizona Daily Star here.
>> The Nuclear Reactor Laboratory exemplifies ARL's interdisciplinary breadth. The reactor is one of 26 non-power reactors currently operating at universities in the U.S. Current users of the reactor and the gamma-irradiation facilities come from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Arizona Research Laboratories Divisions, Atmospheric Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and General Dynamics Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ. Uses of the reactor and the gamma-irradiation facilities include neutron activation analysis of meteoritic and other geological samples, radiation induced chemical processing, testing of radiation effects in electronics, and radiation dosimetry research for homeland security and other applications. The nuclear reactor is currently licensed for operation until the year 2010, and is expected to be decommissioned after that date. Click here to review the lab's website and to view an image of the swimming-pool sized tank.
The Arizona Initiative for the Biology of Complex Diseases (ABCD) was formalized as an ARL Division in mid-2008. Dr. Donata Vercelli serves as Director of ABCD. Vercelli provided the vision and the grassroots impetus necessary to organize the Division and to bring together the broad spectrum of expertise represented on the faculty team. Vercelli, who is also Assistant Director of the Arizona Respiratory Center, has long understood the need to address complex diseases from an interdisciplinary perspective. In her statements about ABCD, Vercelli explained, "Complex diseases afflict 20-30% of the population worldwide. Our effort will contribute to a major and important health challenge around the globe. Everyone feels this arena is the next frontier in medicine." Click to see additional information about Dr. Vercelli and her research.
ABCD is as unique as the diseases it seeks to decipher. ABCD has an innovative organizational paradigm that focuses on the biological interface among distinct but interacting components, which is the unique defining feature of complex diseases. ABCD brings together complex disease-oriented scientists who excel in environmental studies, immunological and clinical phenotyping, genetic epidemiology, population genetics, epigenetics, functional genomics in human and animal models, and development, and provides an interface that catalyzes discussions, promotes unconventional thinking and seeks to establish new experimental and conceptual paradigms. Deciphering complex diseases is not within reach of individual disciplines, but rather requires a concerted interdisciplinary effort.
>> Arizona Initiative for the Biology of Complex Diseases is a new interdisciplinary division within ARL and was created to study the distinct but interacting components of complex diseases that afflict large numbers of people around the globe today. Additional information and a lineup of the members of ABCD's team can be found here.
Aaron Beyerlein, a graduate student in ARL's Center for Insect Science (CIS) interdisciplinary program, was named a 2008-09 ARCS Scholar by the Phoenix Chapter of the ARCS Foundation. Aaron is one of only 18 such scholars at the University of Arizona. The ARCS Foundation was established 49 years ago with a unique vision of what America needs to remain technologically strong and internationally competitive. Their goal is to continue to increase the amount of college scholarship funds dedicated to the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. To qualify for an ARCS scholarship, a student must have an excellent scholastic record, proven ability in a scientific field, and be a citizen of the United States.
Beyerlein graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a B.S. in Biology. His research focuses on the study of basic brain function using relatively simple and accessible insect models. Seeking a Ph.D. degree in Insect Science, Aaron utilizes the insect olfactory system to study how nerve cells process rapid changes in odor concentration. His work will aid entomologists attempting to use strategic pheromone release in place of toxic pesticide to disrupt crop pests as well as public health experts who need to know exactly how insect disease vectors, such as mosquitoes, use odors to locate their human hosts. A summary of Aaron Beyerlien's research interests can be viewed on his bio page.
>> CIS was founded in 1989 when it received one of the three original National Science Foundation Biological Centers Awards. CIS' role is to foster collaborative research and education across topics relevant to integrative biology and areas of biomedicine and biotechnology that employ insects and other arthropods as model systems or investigate their medical impact. For additional information on the Center for Insect Science click here.
Edward DeHoog in ARL's Division of Biomedical Engineering (BME) recently defended and has completed his interdisciplinary graduate program. DeHoog chose BME because he wanted to apply his knowledge of optics to medicine. His dissertation title is Novel Fundus Camera Design. His research focuses on two areas: retinal imaging and ocular aberrations. DeHoog was deeply interested in the interdisciplinary work conducted by BME's Jennifer Barton; Radiology and Optical Science's Arthur Gmitro; and Optical Science's James Schwiegerling. These researchers are all applying optical science directly to the field of medicine.
DeHoog's career includes a BS in Laser Optical Engineering from Oregon Institute of Technology and a Masters in Applied Physics from Oregon State University. During his education, he completed many optics based research projects involving holography, lasers, waveguides and spectroscopy. He also worked for nLight Photonics where he was responsible for the manufacturing and testing of silcon micro lenses. At the University of Arizona, his primary focus in retinal imaging in the development of specialty fundus cameras that incorporate other imaging modalities. A fundus camera is device used for photographing the retina. By incorporating other imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography, imaging polarimetry and computed tomography imaging spectroscopy, he was able to obtain additional information about the optical properties of the retina from the image captured by the fundus camera. The second focus is ocular aberrations and his lab has constructed an adaptive optics test bed to characterize the ability of electro active lens to be used for the correction spherical aberration in the human eye.
>> The goal of BME is to operate research programs with international reputations in the fields of regenerative medicine and bioimaging, and to maintain an outstanding educational opportunity for bioengineering and biomedical science students. To learn more about BME, click here.
ARL's Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory (HOGL) is the lab referred to by Spencer Wells of the Genographic Project in his December 2 speech in Phoenix. The Genographic Project is a five-year study by The National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Spencer Wells , and the Waitt Family Foundation to compile a genetic atlas. A video of Well's presentation can be seen here.
HOGL provides testing for all of the pubic participants of the Genographic Project for the entire world. HOGL was formed to service the DNA testing needs of large-scale projects for both the academic community and the private sector. Over the last few years, HOGL has expanded and built infrastructure to extract, quantify, normalize, and amplify DNA from thousands of samples at a time. ARL's Biotechnology Computing Facility (BCF) has constructed a custom Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to track samples from their entry into the laboratory, through all of the testing procedures, to completed results. Through our collaborations with the Genomic Analysis and Technology Core (GATC) and the BCF, HOGL is capable of providing its client with cheek cell collection swabs and barcoded vials and performing all manipulations necessary to provide nearly any form of genetic data set for any type of client.
>> ARL's Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory was formed to service the DNA testing needs of large-scale projects for both the academic community and the private sector. Read more about HOGL and its range of projects here.
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