171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
|
 |
June 2006
Children's Research Institute News Brief
 |
Bernard L. Maria, MD, MBA
Executive Director
Darby Children's
Research Inst. |
|
 |
Inderjit Singh, PhD
Scientific Director
Darby Children's
Research Inst. |
|
Summer is the perfect opportunity for medical students to enhance their experiences as future health professionals, teachers and
scientists through research positions. These experiences often have a lifelong effect that shapes career choices and professional
development. For medical students, summer research positions are a singular opportunity to concentrate on a project that can advance
a field of research and enhance the prospects of ultimately matching to the best postgraduate training programs by publishing an abstract or paper.
Along with many exciting things going on in the DCRI which we review in Kids Connection every month, this summer we have welcomed
several medical students who will be conducting research in our labs. For students working with MDs, there is also a golden opportunity to
experience clinical care in the Children's Hospital and Clinics. There are three sets of summer students who are offered positions by the
Summer Research Program.
Of the three sets of summer students, the only students who must define specific project goals in advance are the Summer Health Professionals
(SHPs). With few exceptions, the Summer Undergraduate Research Professionals (SURPs) do not know who their mentors will be until they arrive on
site. The Governor's school students know their mentors, but do not submit project titles until they have completed their summer work.
Below is a list of SHP students, projects and mentors for 2006, Governor's school students who will be working with DCRI investigators,
SURPs who are in the "exception" class, and potential DCRI projects based on the submission to the PIs of the different grants.
2006 SHP Projects
Clarice Seifert - Silencing CD44 RNA expression.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Determine the siRNA transfection efficiency of glioma stem cells.
- Determine the effect of knockdown of CD44 on invasiveness of glioma cells.
Jason Curry - Imaging glioma invasiveness with two-photon microscopy
Mentor: Dr. Prakash Kara
Project objectives:
- Determine the efficacy of two-photon microscopy for imaging glioma cells in an established rat model system
- Evaluate the invasiveness of labeled rat glioma cells around neurons in the rat spinal cord
Michael Babcock - Neural and cancer stem cell interactions.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Isolate and colture BCRP+ "side-popolation" (SP) cells and non-SP cells from the C6 rat glioma cell line.
- Determine relative migratory rates of neuralized B5 mouse embryonic stem cells towards SP and non-SP C6 rat glioma cells.
- Determine if migration of neuralized progenitor cells is mediated by SCF in SP and non-SP cells.
Robert Glenn - Effects of CD44 down-regolation on amount and distribution of BCRP
Mentor: Dr. Sammanda Ramamoorthy
Project Objectives:
- Determine the distribution of BCRP on the plasma membrane versus intracellolar pools in glioma stem-like cells.
- Determine the effects of down regolating CD44 on the amount and distribution of BCRP.
Kate Lyttle - Effect of vitamin D on periodontal disease in pregnant women
Mentor: Dr. Carol Wagner
Project Objectives:
- Determine whether or not serum vitamin D levels are inversely correlated with periodontal disease (clinical attachment loss and gingival inflammation) in pregnant women.
- Determine whether or not serum vitamin D levels are associated with a change in clinical attachment loss and gingival inflammation from measures at 12 weeks of pregnancy and within two weeks post-partum for pregnant women.
Wilbert Jacobs - Role of vitamin D in lupus
Mentor: Dr. Gary Gilkeson
Project Objectives:
- Determine the levels of vitamin D binding protein in serum of patients with lupus versus controls.
- Assess if vitamin D binding protein levels vary with disease activity or with vitamin D levels.
- Determine if vitamin D receptor polymorphisms are linked with lupus in the Sea Island Gollah popolation.
- Assess dietary/skin pigment/sun exposure patterns in individuals with normal vitamin D levels versus those that are vitamin D deficient.
Takeshia Campbell - Estrogen and innate immunity
Project Objectives:
- Determine the effects of estrogen on the maturation/activation of dendritic cells.
- Assess the effects of estrogen receptor deficiency on dentritic cells
Mentor: Dr. Gary Gilkeson
Governor's School: Chris Musselwhite will be working with Dr. Sakamuri Reddy
SURP: Ching Zhu and George Magrath will be working with Dr. Bernie Maria
Potential mentors:
Peter Kalivas, Ph.D.
- Role of homer proteins in vulnerability to addiction.
- Importance of extracellular, nonsynaptic glutamate in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Dr. Dan Knapp
Proteomic analysis of heart tissue
As part of the work of our National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute funded Cardiovascular Proteomics Center, we are studying changes in protein expression associated with embryonic heart development and in cardiac hypertrophy. A summer research student will have the opportunity to assist in sample preparation and analysis of heart tissue associated with these studies. Through this experience, the student will be exposed to the analytical methods used for proteomic analysis including multidimensional liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.
We thank Debbie Shoemaker, Director of Summer Research Programs in the College of Graduate Studies, for providing this information.
|
|
Print Version