Status: Filled – Ray Waliagha
Intern: Ray Waliagha
Faculty Name: john-l-hartman
Primary Faculty Appointment: UAB
UAB/HA Department: Genetics
Campus Address: Kaul Genetics Bldg. Room #702, 720-20th Street S.
Telephone Number: (205) 996-4195
Email: jhartman@uab.edu or Click to Send E-Mail
For how many summers have you served as a preceptor: 3 or more
CCC Research Area: Genetics
Number of hours per week that the preceptor will personally supervise or work with the intern: 5
Other faculty, staff, or graduate students who may help to supervise the intern:
1. John Rodgers
2. Ryan Mancinone
Title of Project: 26JH – Yeast phenomic analysis of cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Project Description:
Despite advances in the development of so-called targeted therapies, traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy remains remain to be among the most efficacious therapies available for many types of cancer. Yet, the rationale linking what is known about the mechanisms of action for cytotoxic agents to their differential efficacy for certain cancer types remains poorly understood. While so-called personalized medicine strategies are being implemented to select targeted therapies based on relevant mutations in targets identified by genetic sequencing of individual patient’s tumors, this strategy is quite limited from a genetic perspective, considering the broad landscape of cancer-related mutations and potential resulting tumor-specific vulnerabilities. Yeast, as a model organism, led the way to our understanding of the role of cell cycle, which contributed greatly to the rationale for the development and understanding of cytotoxic chemotherapy and its tumor specific killing qualities. New technology for genetic analysis in yeast has created expanded possibilities for using the yeast to understand complex cellular mechanisms of cytotoxic chemotherapy. Quantitative high throughput cell array phenotyping developed in our laboratory is applied to a genomic collection of 6000 yeast gene knockout and knockdown strains, so that the contribution of every yeast gene to mediating or buffering the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy can be directly measured in single experiments. We have developed an experimental and computational platform to systematically assess chemotherapy in this way and will be profiling additional compounds this summer. The results are analyzed in terms of gene interaction networks and by comparing distinct chemotherapeutic compounds in differential network activity. Example projects can be found in the publications listed at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Hartman2/publications May
Project Status: Already up and running
Location of Project: Birmingham, AL (UAB)
Proposed Start Date: May 3, 2021
Proposed End Date: August 20, 2021
Expected work schedule for intern: Flexible, intern can largely set his or her own schedule (as for students who are instructed how to proceed and are permitted to work independently with weekly guidance) and should contribute full-time effort.
Number of days that the student will be expected to come physically to UAB:
1 day or a few days as needed
Category of Project: Laboratory Research
Cancer topic: Breast, Colon and rectum, Genetics, Ovary
Does this project involve human subjects: No
Does this project involve animal subjects: No
Duty:
1.
Understand, help design, perform and record experiment results.
2.
Analyze data, in communication with supervisors, to generate figures.
3.
Generate figures and summaries of results, with guidance from mentors, to help draft a manuscript.
Preceptor will provide intern with access to the following: Office or desk space, Computer and printer, Laboratory work bench space, Supplies needed to complete project, Equipment needed to complete project, access will be provided if student is able to come to the laboratory
Likelihood that intern will be included as an author on one or more publications related to this summer research project: Very likely
Areas in which the ideal candidates will have experience: Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Clinical Oncology, Computer Programming, Genetics and Genomics, Laboratory Skills, basic knowledge, Literature Review Skills, Manuscript Preparation for Submission to a Journal, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Scientific Writing Skills, Statistical Genetics
