As they prepare for careers of diagnosing diseases and treating patients, two Fordham students got to spend a summer exploring how disease develops—at the level of genes and molecules.
Their focus was Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder affecting movement, and Gaucher's disease, a less common condition that is genetically related. Working with fruit flies, they designed a new gene that could advance the search for cures and treatments.
But they also got a deep immersion in scientific research and everything that goes into it.
Learning to Become Scientists
The project began when pre-health students Olivia Quiros and Vaneeza Sheikh approached biology professor Jason Morris, PhD, about working under his guidance.
First, they brainstormed which disease to study. They considered cancer and Alzheimer’s disease before settling on Parkinson’s, something they had both experienced when it afflicted people close to them.
“I feel like I'm honoring them” by shedding light on how the disease works, said Sheikh, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience.
Research Step by Step
After studying up on their topic, they applied for funding and secured a grant through Fordham. Then they started ordering the tools they would need: enzymes, constructs, and primers used in DNA sequencing.
And, of course, fruit flies, which they had to learn to maintain and breed in the lab.
Scientists study fruit flies because “a lot of their most important genes correspond to a lot of our most important genes,” Morris said. Starting lab work at the end of May, the students focused on a less-examined fruit fly gene that corresponds to a human gene linked to Parkinson’s. They designed a sort of healthy replacement for this gene in flies—learning along the way about how to go about inserting the gene into the flies themselves.
They also designed a tool for use by future researchers—a “locomotion assay,” or a tube designed for testing the flies’ ability to climb. It’s an accessible, simple device “that could be applicable to a lot of other studies” using fruit flies, Quiros said.
Useful Insights for a Medical Career
The project “helps me see how interconnected all of the [scientific] processes are,” and also helped her master topics that will be covered on the MCAT, said Quiros, a senior majoring in English and natural science. In her career as a doctor, she said, “I’m going to encounter patients and people … that have Parkinson's,” and she’ll understand their condition better because of the project, she said.
Sheikh, who plans to become a pediatrician and perhaps a pediatric neurologist, said the project provided good training in patience, flexibility, and problem-solving skills, given how often they had to come up with quick solutions for unanticipated problems.
“This research has definitely opened my eyes into seeing how much work goes on behind the scenes, and how much it contributes to patient care and the understanding of different neurological diseases,” she said.