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