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Marissa Herrman (Molecular and Cell Biology major)
"The role of cellular microRNAs in CMV infection: identification of microRNA targets and downstream effects using SILAC and mass sepctrometry"
Sponsor: Fenyong Liu, Public Health
Project Description
Since their discovery in 1993, microRNAs (miRNAs) have become an area of active research and are currently believed to rival transcriptional regulation as a means of controlling messenger RNA levels and ultimately protein production within a cell. In response to viral infection, the cellular miRNA profile shifts to regulate specific protein levels and combat infection. Cellular miRNA mir-7 has been shown to be significantly upregulated following infection with Cytomegalovirus, a beta-herpes virus present in up to 80% of the population. However the messenger RNA target and effects on protein levels have yet to be elucidated. In her research, Marissa will use mass spectrometry to monitor protein level changes after overexpression of miR-7 to identify potential messenger RNA targets and downstream molecular pathway effects and their role in Cytomegalovirus infection.
Scholar's Photo
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Marissa using the fluorescence microscope to check HFF cells for viral infection. |
Scholar's Journal
This past summer has been one of the most mentally intensive summers I have ever had, but now that it has finally come to a close, I can also say it has been one of the most rewarding and productive times of my life. I started this summer with a very clear idea of how things were going to be. It was going to be simple. I was going to be able to set aside everything else and solely focus on how to achieve my goal—finding proteins affected by a microRNA upregulated after Cytomegalovirus infection. Sure, I was going to hit bumps almost every step of the way, but that is how science operates, and it would give me the opportunity to attempt troubleshooting on my own. I was going to learn the scientific precision necessary to have my results critiqued and still be able to say with confidence that I stand behind what I have found. I was going to become a scientist in my own right.
Soon after the summer started, however, the little bumps I had expected became mountains that I really had no choice but to turn away from. After doing a bit more research, I decided (with help from other members of my lab, of course) that in order to make my protein search meaningful I really needed to do a global screening of as many cellular proteins as possible—a task the mass spectrometer in my lab was not equipped to do. So I looked for services available on campus to help me out. After talking with one of the main men who runs the mass spectrometry service on campus, I was strongly advised to reconsider my techniques altogether. I was told that data that I got would be too variable and unreliable and that my lab may not have to computational capacity to deal with all the data generated.
I had hit my first major roadblock. So I started searching Pubmed. I started looking for a way around it, which wasn’t as easy as I thought. I started talking to more people and realized that maybe this isn’t the best way to approach my microRNA research. Honestly, I can’t say that I have figured out the best way and I think that is part of being a working scientist. There is not best way, but there are multiple different techniques that when combined together produce a result that leads to a conclusion. I am still working on the particulars of getting everything together and in order so that I can spend this next year producing something I hope I can be proud of.
But this summer was by no means a waste. Since I have been an undergraduate researcher with my lab for almost two years now, devoting my time to my research for the Haas Scholars program was not the only thing I did in lab this summer and I think it was everything else that that really made this summer productive. The graduate student that I have worked closely with since I started in the Liu lab spent this summer finishing up his thesis, so I spent a lot of my summer helping him with that. In doing so, I was exposed to crucial techniques that I had never done before but will be necessary for me to take an independent approach to my research once he graduates. Many of the results I saw will never relate directly back to the project that becomes my honors thesis, but this summer it was all about the process—getting myself ready to move on without such close guidance by a graduate student.
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