I decided to study Pho88, and the phosphate transport pathway in yeast for my final experiment for a few reasons. First, I had recently found out about a knew field that has opened up in drug development where special strains of yeast are used to produce pharmaceuticals and precursors to certain drugs. By modifying its DNA, the yeast can be altered to perform chemical reactions that create and amplify certain drugs. Researchers at Stanford University used this technique to create a strain of yeast that can convert sugar into thebaine, a key precursor molecule to morphine and other strong painkillers. By tweaking yeast pathways, researchers have said that more effective, less addictive versions of painkillers could be produced.
I was introduced to the yeast phosphate transport pathway in another course I was taking this year, BIOL 340. The research I completed for this class lead me to believe that the phosphate transport and metabolic pathway could be linked to this new drug development technique. Phosphate is a key molecule in enzymatic reactions and intracellular metabolic pathways. I believed that by regulating the balance of inorganic phosphate in yeast, the synthesis of drugs can be affected or altered. By learning more about the function of one protein involved in the phosphate transport pathway, scientists could potentially make advancements in drug development and amplification in yeast.
One concept about gene regulation that I have learned through this final project is that gene regulation can be very difficult to study because it occurs at so many different levels. At one point during my research, I was hesitant to continue studying this pathway because I was concerned I was misinterpreting a protein trafficking mutant phenotype as a gene expression mutant phenotype. Intracellular trafficking can indirectly regulate gene expression by affecting the amount of transcript or protein present in a certain cell compartment. For example, if a transcript or protein acts in the extracellular environment, up regulating its secretion and release from vesicles could increase its effect without directly changing gene transcription or translation levels. What I suspected was that my mutant may be inhibiting the secretion of a certain protein from the cell. Therefore, when levels of this protein were measured in the extracellular environment, it may seem that gene expression was down-regulated, while it has actually remained the same.
In my opinion, the most difficult aspect of my final project was the research required to learn all of the background information about my topic and the mutant I studied. I believe that my courses here at UBC have given me a great understanding of basic experimental techniques in molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, but it took me a long time to find an appropriate knowledge gap for the scope of this project. Even then, after I had committed to my topic, I still wondered if what I had chosen was appropriate, and I struggled to find the information I needed to devise a hypothesis that was completely novel.
I decided to study Pho88, and the phosphate transport pathway in yeast for my final experiment for a few reasons. First, I had recently found out about a knew field that has opened up in drug development where special strains of yeast are used to produce pharmaceuticals and precursors to certain drugs. By modifying its DNA, the yeast can be altered to perform chemical reactions that create and amplify certain drugs. Researchers at Stanford University used this technique to create a strain of yeast that can convert sugar into thebaine, a key precursor molecule to morphine and other strong painkillers. By tweaking yeast pathways, researchers have said that more effective, less addictive versions of painkillers could be produced.
I was introduced to the yeast phosphate transport pathway in another course I was taking this year, BIOL 340. The research I completed for this class lead me to believe that the phosphate transport and metabolic pathway could be linked to this new drug development technique. Phosphate is a key molecule in enzymatic reactions and intracellular metabolic pathways. I believed that by regulating the balance of inorganic phosphate in yeast, the synthesis of drugs can be affected or altered. By learning more about the function of one protein involved in the phosphate transport pathway, scientists could potentially make advancements in drug development and amplification in yeast.
One concept about gene regulation that I have learned through this final project is that gene regulation can be very difficult to study because it occurs at so many different levels. At one point during my research, I was hesitant to continue studying this pathway because I was concerned I was misinterpreting a protein trafficking mutant phenotype as a gene expression mutant phenotype. Intracellular trafficking can indirectly regulate gene expression by affecting the amount of transcript or protein present in a certain cell compartment. For example, if a transcript or protein acts in the extracellular environment, up regulating its secretion and release from vesicles could increase its effect without directly changing gene transcription or translation levels. What I suspected was that my mutant may be inhibiting the secretion of a certain protein from the cell. Therefore, when levels of this protein were measured in the extracellular environment, it may seem that gene expression was down-regulated, while it has actually remained the same.
In my opinion, the most difficult aspect of my final project was the research required to learn all of the background information about my topic and the mutant I studied. I believe that my courses here at UBC have given me a great understanding of basic experimental techniques in molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, but it took me a long time to find an appropriate knowledge gap for the scope of this project. Even then, after I had committed to my topic, I still wondered if what I had chosen was appropriate, and I struggled to find the information I needed to devise a hypothesis that was completely novel.