science
HEADLINES FSUMED
You’ re invited to Gunjan’ s lab
4 rom smoking to sunburn to dental X-rays, life is tough on DNA – which is why cells have developed their own elaborate DNA repair shops. Without quick and accurate fixes, damage can lead to cancer. DNA repair appears to be one function of a protein called H3.3, and researcher Akash Gunjan suspects that eventually it might help fight certain cancers. But right now – with a three-year, $ 734,000 National Science Foundation grant – he plans to hunker down with H3.3, discover more about what makes it tick and, equally important, share what he learns with the public. NSF grants are uncommon in medical schools. Most biomedical grants come from the National Institutes of Health.“ If this grant were from the NIH, most likely my primary task would be to move forward as quickly as possible with testing therapeutic options for treating cancers caused by mutations in this protein,” said Gunjan, an associate professor of biomedical sciences.“ But at the NSF, the focus is on understanding basic biology. Most other funding agencies are not likely anymore to fund that kind of research. I think that’ s shortsighted.” NSF also appreciates one of his research models: plain old baker’ s yeast.“ That’ s the simplest way of studying this gene that, in humans, causes cancer – and we don’ t know why,” Gunjan said.“ We can’ t quite do all our experiments on humans. So whatever we learn from yeast, we’ ll see if it’ s adaptable to humans.” Although yeast has been researched for generations, he insists it still has much to teach us. Its single cell is also an entire organism.
science
HEADLINES FSUMED
You’ re invited to Gunjan’ s lab
F
4 rom smoking to sunburn to dental X-rays, life is tough on DNA – which is why cells have developed their own elaborate DNA repair shops. Without quick and accurate fixes, damage can lead to cancer. DNA repair appears to be one function of a protein called H3.3, and researcher Akash Gunjan suspects that eventually it might help fight certain cancers. But right now – with a three-year, $ 734,000 National Science Foundation grant – he plans to hunker down with H3.3, discover more about what makes it tick and, equally important, share what he learns with the public. NSF grants are uncommon in medical schools. Most biomedical grants come from the National Institutes of Health.“ If this grant were from the NIH, most likely my primary task would be to move forward as quickly as possible with testing therapeutic options for treating cancers caused by mutations in this protein,” said Gunjan, an associate professor of biomedical sciences.“ But at the NSF, the focus is on understanding basic biology. Most other funding agencies are not likely anymore to fund that kind of research. I think that’ s shortsighted.” NSF also appreciates one of his research models: plain old baker’ s yeast.“ That’ s the simplest way of studying this gene that, in humans, causes cancer – and we don’ t know why,” Gunjan said.“ We can’ t quite do all our experiments on humans. So whatever we learn from yeast, we’ ll see if it’ s adaptable to humans.” Although yeast has been researched for generations, he insists it still has much to teach us. Its single cell is also an entire organism.
GLENN SANGER-HODGSON
“ That organism does everything pretty much the same as what one of our cells does, but with much greater efficiency in terms of the number of genes involved in a process,” he said. Because it’ s abundant and safe, Gunjan often employs yeast when he works with young students. NSF grants require researchers to pass along what they learn to students and the public.“ I work a lot with K-12 students,” he said,“ Anyone who’ s interested from fifth grade onward, I tell them,‘ Just come into my lab and see what you can do.’” He works with the College of Medicine’ s SSTRIDE Summer Institute and FSU’ s Young Scholars Program. Actually, he works with just about anyone who approaches him.“ I’ ve had students who started in eighth or ninth grade in the lab and worked every year
until they graduated, and now they’ re off at college somewhere else – and when they come home during the summers, they come back to the lab,” Gunjan said. This NSF grant allows him to expand that involvement with young scientists – and to address science’ s“ big disconnect” with the public.“ People have become skeptical of what we do,” he said.“ We should explain:‘ Ten or 15 years from now, this is going to pay off, because from this we’ re going to have an understanding of how processes go awry in certain human diseases, and based on what we learn here, we’ re going to come up with therapeutics.’“ When people ask me what I’ m doing, in many cases I say,‘ Come and see for yourself.’” Reach Akash Gunjan at akash. gunjan @ med. fsu. edu.
Related: Young Scholars Program ignites spark in future researchers