Page 9 - EUREKA Winter 2017

about where CTCs (if there are any) may have travelled. they could gain time for
Often, the next step is to remove the first lymph nodes in the transporting organs from
path and test them for cancer, an invasive process that may donors to recipients. And if
also comprise the patient’s immune system. scientists knew how marine
Researchers have been trying to find a better way to track turtles live without oxygen
down CTCs. Treatments often involve the use of cancer- for long periods, doctors
specific antibodies, which may bind to CTCs and allow them might be better able to treat
to be detected and treated, but the immune system often stroke victims.
attacks and breaks down those antibodies. For the last Storey’s research subjects
two years, Carleton biochemistry professor and Research include snails, beetles
Achievement Award recipient William Willmore has been and other species that go
working with chemist Maria DeRosa and PhD student Eman through a process called
Hassan to test the potential of long DNA strands called estivation to survive heat
aptamers to bind to cancer cells. There are thousands and drought. All cells —
of variations of these aptamers, but only aptamers of a whether they’re in a human
particular shape will bind to cancer cells. In a methodical or in a tiny roundworm called C. elegans — use the same
time-consuming process, the Carleton team dropped basic mechanisms to carry out tasks such as division.
normal cells into aptamers drawn from a “library” of DNA If scientists can figure out which proteins and enzymes
sequences. If the aptamers bound to the normal cells, they allow C. elegans to estivate, they might be able to identify
were eliminated from further testing. Next, the researchers and control similar cellular pathways in humans. “We look
dropped cancer cells into the pool of remaining aptamers. If through the animal kingdom and try to see how — in
any aptamers bound to the cancer cells, the team retested four billion years of evolution — suspended animation,
to see which ones bound most strongly. hibernation and estivation have been set into tissues and
Now the team has a pool of aptamers that bind strongly organs,” says Storey. “As humans, we can’t hibernate, but we
to cancer cells but not to regular cells. They can attach a have all the same machinery.”
fluorescent molecule to the end of each aptamer that glows
when light passes through it, making it easy to spot the
cancer cells. Working with electronics professor Jacques
Albert, they have also figured out a way to attach the Mike Donkers: The lab conjurer
aptamers to a gold-coated fibre-optic strand, which they
want to insert into a needle or catheter. A doctor would use Science instructors know that hands-on labs help students
the device to draw blood or other fluids from the patient, learn. Seeing how phenomena play out in the real world can
then the tiny strand would be illuminated to detect CTCs. cement theoretical concepts. Laboratories are expensive
Willmore and his team hope to use their award funding to to build and equip, however. It takes time to set up an
develop a prototype instrument for testing blood samples. experiment. Labs can expose people to dangerous materials
“This is my way,” he says, “to help combat cancer.” and equipment. Some objects of study, such as black holes
or planetary interiors, are hard to access without extremely
expensive devices. And some types of experiments, such as
those on living creatures, pose ethical or moral issues.
Ken Storey: The nature whisperer To give students more opportunities to put the theories
they’ve learned into practice, Department of Physics contract
Have you ever wondered why bears don’t starve when instructor Mike Donkers is creating a virtual laboratory
they hibernate? Or how some marine species survive environment (VLE). This set of interactive software modules
on a beach when they’re stranded by the tide? Carleton will allow students to collect and analyze data in a simulated
biology professor Ken Storey has long pondered these setting. There will be variations and imperfections in the data,
questions. The Research Achievement Award winner studies as in the real world. Alarms will go off if a piece of virtual
hibernation and other ways animals withstand extreme equipment is in danger of malfunctioning.
temperatures or shortages of food, water or oxygen. The modules are being designed to complement lectures
“We study how you can turn off an entire organism — all and physical labs, not to replace them. “I wanted students
their cells, all their organs — and then how you can revive to be engaged with the material that’s being taught,” says
them,” he says. This research, intriguing in its own right, may Donkers, who has received a Contract Instructor Teaching
also have varied applications outside the lab. If researchers Innovation Award to develop the VLE — another way to
could switch transplant organs off and then on again, introduce students to the magic of science.

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