2023 Fall/Winter Highlights of Hope

RESEARCH
to Lowell to help the trio set up experiments,
analyze what they’re seeing and talk through
next steps.
In their classroom lab, Gates helped the
students add the bacteria they gathered to
the plates to see how the worms react. Do
they go about business as usual? Do they
seem more active? Or do they seem sluggish
and lethargic?
The worms are canaries in a coal mine,
bellwethers for breakthroughs. If insulinresistant
worms get healthier in the
presence of certain bacteria, that’s a sign
that the microbes could have what it takes
to curb insulin resistance.
Regardless of the eventual results, the
students say, it’s the journey and the
possibility of finding something wholly
unique that drives their work.
“It really is a learning process. If you mess up
one time, why did you mess up? I like going
back to figure out what works and what
doesn’t,” Van Duinen said. “That in itself can
be an experiment.”
Pearson jumps in: “There’s no wrong answer.
There’s just a thousand not-quite-right
ones.”
“And on top of that,” Nietupski adds, “I like
how there’s always something new. There
will always be things that have not been
discovered yet.”
From Lowell to the lab
Back at VAI, Gates and Burton gathered
around a glowing computer monitor
depicting a split-screen of two groups of
worms, their images projected from a pair of
plates sitting under a nearby microscope.
Half are healthy and writhing. The other half
are listless.
References
All of them offer clues into the innerworkings
of insulin resistance.
While the students were hard at work in
Lowell, Burton’s lab tackled the technical
aspects of the project. This includes
screening soil samples to identify known
microbes and flag new ones. The most
promising sample came from close to home
— a compost pile in Gates’ backyard.
So far, the Burton Lab has found three
bacteria with the potential to impact insulin
resistance. The work is far from over — fully
analyzing each one is an arduous process
that can take a year or more.
“Our dream is that we characterize these
bacteria, and we find something that works,”
Burton said. “In the long term, we want to
translate our basic findings from the lab
into the clinic, where we can actually help
people.”
There is a deep precedent for mining
bacteria for new medicines. The antibiotics
streptomycin, vancomycin and tetracycline
were all derived from soil bacteria. 4
Rapamycin, which helps prevent rejection
in organ transplants and has anti-cancer
properties, was isolated from a bacterium
dug from the soil of Rapa Nui, also known
as Easter Island. 5 The chemotherapy agent
bleomycin was discovered by scientists after
screening Streptomyces bacteria in search
of a species that could be used in drug
development. 6
That’s the kind of breakthrough Burton
and his team are working toward. They’ve
already had some exciting early results
that Burton hopes to publish in a scientific
journal sometime in the next year. Although
the findings aren’t ready to be shared yet,
the nature of research offers a tantalizing
promise for what’s to come.
The start of something big
In many ways, this project is only the
beginning.
The beginning of a possible new way to
treat insulin resistance and, with it, Type 2
diabetes.
The beginning of a collaboration designed to
inspire curiosity.
And, for many, the beginning of a fresh way
to think about the ground beneath our feet.
The power of science is rooted in the
unknown and what we might find when we
take the simple step of asking a question.
For the students, the chance to contribute
to real research has opened a new world
of possibility, one that offers revelations for
those who choose to search.
“There really aren’t a ton of other schools
that do what we’re doing with this,” said
Pearson. “This has been an incredible
opportunity to do some real scientific
exploration in a setting where we’re
supported by teachers, peers and incredible
scientists.”
As the analysis continues in Burton’s
lab, there is a current of excitement, a
constant hum of possibility that something
unexpected could be right around the
corner. What if a simple clod of dirt and the
microbes within — from Lowell, from Grand
Rapids, from Rockford — could be the key to
a life-changing breakthrough?
“The possibilities are endless,” Burton said. “I
can’t wait to see what comes next.”
1
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2022. Type 2 diabetes. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/type2.html
2
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2022. National Diabetes Statistics Report. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html
3
Zhang S, Li F, Zhou T, Wang G, Li Z. 2020. Caenorhabditis elegans as a useful model for studying aging mutations. Front Endocrinol 11.
4
Li W. 2020. Bacteria: The drug factory you’d never expect. Harvard University Science in the News. https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/bacteria-the-drug-factory-youd-never-expect/
5
Seto B. 2012. Rapamycin and mTOR: a serendipitous discovery and implications for breast cancer. Clin Transl Med 1:29.
6
American Chemical Society. 2020. Bleomycin. https://www.acs.org/molecule-of-the-week/archive/b/bleomycin.html
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