Letter from the Editor-in-Chief - Medical Science Educator - LIMSC ...

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The layout and design of the Laboratory forEducation in Molecular Medicine is depicted inFigure 2. Three dedicated laboratory rooms with acombined footprint of 2700 square feet include alarge primary teaching lab space and two smallerlabs used for preparative activities in support ofboth curricular microbiology sessions and researchactivities (e.g., dishwashing, autoclaving, media andsolution preparation, bacterial culture, etc.). Thelarge primary teaching lab can seat up to 60students at custom-designed oval or semi-ovaltables that are configured for both AC power andethernet connectivity. Seating for such a large groupis only necessary for the microbiology wet-labs thatare delivered in support of the Scientific Principlesof Medicine course; however, these tables can beused as lab benches during the summer andintervals between teaching laboratories in supportof student research. Students are also welcome touse these lab benches at any time for self-study; e.g.,using available microscopes for microbiology,histology and pathology review.Table 2: Instrumentation ensemble installed in the PLFSOM Laboratory for Education in Molecular Medicine.Instruments support a robust standard set of molecular and cell biology methodologies and techniques. In particular, all classic radiationbaseddetection methods are replaced with corresponding photometric methods.Research equipment and instrumentation is locatedat the periphery of this main teaching lab, keepingthis primary space relatively open and uncluttered.Evenly distributed along two sides is a series of deepstainless sinks. Residing between the sinks includeelectrophoresis stations, a variety of centrifuges,shakers and incubators, sonicators and refrigeratedstorage (+4 o C, -20 o C, -80 o C, and liquid nitrogen)rounding out the equipment in the main teachingarea. Two wall-mounted large LCD flat-panelscreens are located on the front wall for projectionsfrom PCs or from video microscopes. A pair ofshared PC workstations is dedicated to molecularbiology and protein structure software. Each ofthese workstations can also project to the LCDpanels for wider viewing.In addition to the standard repertoire of equipmentto support basic molecular biology methods, a set ofmore specialized instrumentation is distributedthrough the three lab spaces to facilitate specializedexperimental techniques (summarized in Table 2).In particular, mammalian cell culture, stem cellbiology, quantitative PCR, flow cytometry, roboticliquid handling, chromatography, proteincrystallization, and automated imaging systems aresupported.Medical Science Educator © IAMSE 2013 Volume 23(1S) 112
Two full-time staff members are dedicated to theLEMM: a lab manager and a research technician.This staff ‘team’ is responsible for facilitating allcurriculum and research activities under facultysupervision. They also advise and implement safetypolicies and provide support to the faculty andstudents for SARP research activities. Importantly,this team manages the budget and lab ordering andprovides routine maintenance and upkeep ofinstrumentation and equipment.Student Research Project DevelopmentCurrently, there are a number of projects in theLEMM that have facilitated completion of SARPrequirements for eight students, with an additional12 students’ research on-going. These projects covera range of research areas including: detection ofHTLV serotypes in human transplant tissues; coloncancer cell growth analysis; crystallographicstructure determination of translation proteins;retina development; and muscle cell differentiation.These individual projects have developed primarilyat the level of a single mentor working with one orseveral students. Rather than facilitating a wideningarray of divergent research topics we are exploringways to augment the research environment in theLEMM to take advantage of the unique communalaspect of the lab. One strategy was to identify arelevant disease or clinical problem that providesmultiple research angles that are amenable to themolecular biology methods and techniques we haveconcentrated in the LEMM. The idea was toconsolidate a set of projects, and thereby coalesce agroup of faculty and students into more effectiveinteractions, and to provide useful overlap andpotential synergy between individual student SARPprojects. To this end, we identified DucheneMuscular Dystrophy as a suitable disease for such afocus.Developing cell and gene therapies forDuchenne Muscular DystrophyDuchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a common(~1/3600 live births) life-threatening diseasecaused by X-linked mutations in the dystrophingene. Following the discovery of the gene in 1986,DMD has become, among all the musculardystrophies, the best understood at the molecularlevel, and is devastating in terms of disease progressand outcome. 22,23 Boys with DMD typically exhibitmotor dysfunction by 5 to 6 years of age, arewheelchair-bound in their mid-to-late teens, and diein their 20s due to organ failure (cardiovascular andrespiratory). Thus, the etiology of DMD is knownwith certainty and there is currently a large androbust research community exploring various basicbiology questions and therapeutic approaches tothis disease; therefore, we decided to develop aconsortium of research projects for our medicalstudents focusing on DMD (Figure 3). 24-28 Bydeveloping this focus, or center of gravity, for thestudent projects several important advantages areobtained. First, overlap between different projectsfacilitates cooperation between groups of studentsallowing more efficient use of their limited time andeffort committed to their research. Also, while thestudents are working on distinct individual projectsthey can share a common background literatureconcerning basic, translational and clinical researcharound DMD. This facilitates journal clubs andcommon lab meetings to bring together bothstudents and mentors sharing these interests.Finally, as projects progress synergy will naturallydevelop as students share ideas, reagents andresults.While there are currently no effective treatments forDMD, several cell and gene therapy strategies holdmuch promise and we have selected a subset ofthese for project development in the LEMM. 24-28These experimental approaches are tractable interms of both scope and resources available to ourstudents. Importantly, these projects involvemethodologies and techniques that will introducethe students to the most modern technology and upto-dateapproaches at developing effective therapiesfor DMD. Of course, the gene- and cell-basedexperimental strategies for DMD have many generalaspects that are relevant to research on a largenumber of both genetic and non-genetic diseases,including diabetes and cancer. Three ‘themes’ arebeing pursued for this LEMM project consortium(Figure 3).The first project theme is centered on basic musclecell biology. An in vitro model for skeletal musclecell differentiation is being refined in the LEMMbased on mouse myoblasts. These cells haveengineered inducible transcriptional cassettes stablytransfected through which several regulators ofdifferentiation can be controlled. 29 The secondtheme involves stem cell biology: inducedpluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) will be generatedfrom myoblastic cell lines through introduction of astandard cocktail of inducing genes. 28,30,31 Recentwork has demonstrated the feasibility of producingiPSCs from a patient’s own cells, thus providing animportant avenue for cell-based therapies targetinggenetic diseases, including muscular dystrophy. 32,33We hypothesize that by modulating differentiationthrough introduction of regulatable geneticelements, muscle cells will be rendered moresusceptible to induction of stem cell-like properties.This is an important consideration as any eventualMedical Science Educator © IAMSE 2013 Volume 23(1S) 113
Page 4 and 5: Patient Oriented Research: The Duke
Page 6 and 7: MEDICAL SCIENCE EDUCATORThe Journal
Page 8 and 9: alumni continued with a full time a
Page 12 and 13: In addition to the monthly core ses
Page 16 and 17: encourages students to develop and
Page 20 and 21: Figure 1: The average number of pub
Page 22 and 23: with a higher impact factor, and pu
Page 24 and 25: 12. Green EP, Borkan JM, Pross SH,
Page 26 and 27: in providing research opportunities
Page 28 and 29: Figure 2: Number of projects comple
Page 30 and 31: eing evaluated on multiple occasion
Page 32 and 33: suggested that academic schools/dep
Page 36 and 37: efficient as possible. All students
Page 40 and 41: effective therapy will regulate pro
Page 42 and 43: Key WordsMedical student research,
Page 44 and 45: 33. Darabi R, Baik J, Clee M, Kyba
Page 46 and 47: work in a team with a faculty super
Page 50 and 51: CORE COMPETENCYThe Scientific Metho
Page 52 and 53: During Year 3, students are brought
Page 54 and 55: APPENDIXFigure 1: Curriculum themes
Page 56 and 57: Figure 2: Cystic Fibrosis Case Intr
Page 58 and 59: Table 2: Medical Scholar Series Top
Page 60 and 61: Table 3: Representative research pr
Page 62 and 63: the M.B.Ch.B and B.Pharm. degrees r
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Page 66 and 67: References1. Eichbaum Q, Nyarango P
Page 68 and 69: methods, sample size and power, use
Page 70 and 71: Evaluation Survey by StudentsAt the
Page 72 and 73: DiscussionThis program was created
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Page 84 and 85: KeywordsResearch, Competencies, Cur
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Glucose measurements are taken in s
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13. Basu Ray I, Henry TL, Davis W,
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Goals of the Research ProgramBy est
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Community OutcomesEach year we shar
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MEDICAL SCIENCE EDUCATORThe Journal
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AlamarBlue assay. For downregulatio
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development of cancer in NF1-patien
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coated with micro-patterns of Colla
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Duke Treadmill Score for Predicting
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and smr genes were downloaded from
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initial diagnosis respectively the
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hythm, we considered it appropriate
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Respiration Changes on Fowler Posit
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to the WHO protocol, the measure wa
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anesthesia techniques are safe and
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Spearman correlation quotient (R) a
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International Association ofMedical
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Letter from the Editor-in-Chief - Medical Science Educator - LIMSC ...

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