Beyoncé Bahe

Title of Work: 

Structural and Functional Analysis of the CRISPR-Cas Effector

Abstract:

CRISPR (clustered, regularly, interspaced, short, palindromic, repeats) is a vital part of Bacteria and Archaea's RNA-based adaptive immune system that shields against exogenous genetic elements. RNA-guided nucleases from CRISPR-cas systems are making a name in the world of genomic editing due to their reliable and easy-to-manipulate genomic makeup. The various functions of CRISPR-cas effectors have yet to be discovered and therefore have the potential for further genomic engineering in the future. For this reason, CRISPR is a prominent field of research within science laboratories across the world. CryoEM single particle analysis of Bacillus halodurans’ Type III-B CRISPR-Cas effector complexed with target RNA. More specifically, analyzing the three-dimensional structure of the target RNA-bound CRISPR-Cas effector to reveal the mechanism of producing the second messenger, cyclic oligoadenylate, by the effector.

Title of Work (IGP Language):  

CRISPR-Cas効果子の構造と機能解析

Abstract (IGP Language):

CRISPR（Clustered, Regularly, Interspaced, Short, Palindromic, Repeats）は、細菌と古細菌のRNAベースの適応的免疫システムの重要な部分で、外来の遺伝子要素に対して防御を提供します。CRISPR-CasシステムからのRNA誘導核酸酵素は、その信頼性と簡単に操作できるゲノムメイクアップのためにゲノム編集の世界で名を馳せています。CRISPR-Casエフェクターのさまざまな機能はまだ発見されておらず、したがって将来のゲノムエンジニアリングの可能性があります。このため、CRISPRは世界中の科学研究所で重要な研究分野です。バチルス・ハロデュランスのType III-B CRISPR-Casエフェクターが目標RNAと複合体を形成したものをCryoEM単一粒子解析により解析します。具体的には、目標RNAに結合したCRISPR-Casエフェクターの三次元構造を解析し、エフェクターによる2番目のメッセンジャー、環状オリゴアデニル酸の生成メカニズムを明らかにします。

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

Hello, everyone! My name is Beyonce Bahe. I'm a fifth year in the NAU IGP program, and I'm studying Japanese. My double majors are comparative cultural studies and biomedical sciences. I study abroad at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. Specifically in the School of Agriculture Laboratory. I did my internship on Structural and Functional analysis of the CRISPR-Cas Effector which I will be giving you a little bit of an overview about today. So CRIPSR, or clustered, regularly, interspaced short palindromic repeats are a vital part of bacteria and Archaea specifically because they can manipulate the genome that they're interacting with in such a way that if they encounter the same, let's say, pathogen or virus in the future they can confer back to their last or first interaction with that specific virus, and essentially use their own genome against them in order to eliminate them. So there's tons of research going on with this across the world and in Japan. So you can tell from what I studied and this can help on many different levels in terms of public health healthcare as well as just maybe general aging pathologies and such. So it's a great topical field for me, specifically as someone who wants to go into the medical field in the future after I graduate. So the cultural immersion that I experienced throughout the internship was very apparent compared to my time here in American labs that I've had the opportunity to be in primarily because of the age structure and the use of keigo as someone who is studying Japanese for a while. It's still quite a bit of a difficult change and shift to go into Keigo whenever I'm speaking to a higher-up compared to someone who's lower than me, and that I don't necessarily have to use it with. So that was a bit of an adjustment. Some of the methods that I used where LB Broth Synthesis, large-scale culture, transformation, induction, and harvesting. Here's kind of a picture of the Plasmids that I purified and cultured due to so previous to due to the previous lab member's lack of results seen here in this top right corner. Like I mentioned, I purified the plasmids and did. Dialysis results in RNA cleavage ability, scenario page, and compared the rest of my findings with the wild type to see how the CRISPR cast effect specifically interacted with the environment. So although I did spend many months within the lab as someone as anyone who with any lab experience will know it's very hard to kind of get to the point where you want to be within a specific amount of time. So unfortunately I did not. I was not able to go as far as far as I wanted, but it was still a great opportunity overall, and I really enjoyed it a lot. So thank you so much for listening.

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