Matthias Glass

Title of Work: 

The Effects of DNA Damage using C. elegans as a Model Organism

Abstract:

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. With 10 million people dying from cancer every year, the need for new treatments and research methods is tremendous. However, effective treatments are built on a foundation of basic science, and as such, to find new solutions for cancer, we need a better understanding of it and the mechanisms of its development. The goal of my project is to better understand the effects of DNA damage in the model organisms C. elegans. In order to accomplish this, I tested DNA damage across varying treatments and conditions, such as ultrasound and incubation time. This research is important for the field of molecular toxicology, because the cellular mechanisms of DNA damage and repair are strongly conserved in all animals, including C. elegans and humans. Because of this, we can better understand cancer development in humans by studying these mechanisms in model organisms like C. elegans.

Title of Work (Global Language):  

Die Effekte von DNA-Schaden mittels C. elegans als Modellorganismus

Abstract (Global Language):

Krebs ist immer wieder die zweitgrößte Todesursache in der Welt, mit nur Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankungen als ein großer Killer. Mit zehn Millionen Toten an Krebs jedes Jahr ist der Bedarf für neue Behandlung und Forschung Methoden noch nie hoch. Aber jede Behandlung ist auf der Grundlage der einfachen Forschung gebaut und deswegen, wenn wir neue Lösungen für Krebs finden, dann müssen wir besser Krebs als eine Krankheit und die Entwicklungsmechanismen besser verstehen. Der Zweck von meinem Projekt ist, die Effekte von DNA-Schaden in C. elegans besser zu verstehen. Um das zu machen, teste ich DNA-Schaden in verschiedenen Konditionen, zum Beispiel mit verschiedenen Ultraschallbehandlungen und Inkubationszeiten. Diese Forschung ist wichtig für das Feld der Molekular-Toxikologie, weil die biologischen Reaktionsmechanismen zu DNA-Schaden sehr ähnlich in jede eukaryotischen Organismus, inklusive C. elegans und Menschen sind. Deswegen können wir besser Krebsentwicklung in Menschen verstehen, wenn wir die Mechanismen in C. elegans erforschen. 

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: Morning. My name is Matthias Glass, and I study biomedical science and German. I recently got back from studying abroad at the University of Constance in Germany, where I completed a research internship with the molecular toxicology group today, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the research project that I completed, and if you want to hear more about it, you can come to the Igp summit, and I'll be there to talk about it.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: So the title of my project in English is investigating the effects of DNA damage, using C elegans as a model organism. C. Elegans is a roundworm which you can see on the side here on this left-hand picture, this blue illuminated organism.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: It's a very small roundworm. It's a simple animal about at its largest 1 in length.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: and it's a very useful model organism for molecular toxicology work, because a large number of its DNA repair and damage response mechanisms are actually conserved across the entire animal kingdom, including in humans so many of the pathways that an organism even as simple as this worm would use to respond to DNA damage which, of course, can lead to cancer.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: are the same kind of mechanisms that are being used in our own bodies, probably on a daily basis, as they encounter outside toxins and other molecules that could damage our DNA and lead to cancer in us.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: So this makes C elegans a really useful model organism for this kind of work, and my project was to investigate how these responses to DNA damage are modulated by the life cycle phase that the worm is in C elegans has about 4 different life stages.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: and each one shows greater development and different characteristics. So what I did was investigated. How exactly that manifested in the DNA damage you could observe in the organism. So I did this by obviously culturing a horde of worms, and then

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: introducing a particular toxin, most often hydrogen peroxide, which would damage the DNA. And then I would use a technique called fluorometric analysis of DNA unwinding, which is a very large term which is very large

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: name, so we can call it Fadu instead. And this essentially allows you to run an assay using a pipe heading robot that can take a time point at the beginning before too much DNA damage has occurred, and at the end, when more DNA damage has been enacted, and more, DNA has been unwound, and you can really see that effect more profoundly. You quantify that by using a

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: fluorescent agent called cyber green, which binds to DNA damage, and then you can assess the extent of the damage with a plate. Reader, which will show you again that time. Point one time, point final, and you can compare them to see how extensive the DNA damage was, and then over the course of the project, compare between the different life stages.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: So, while the final conclusions of this project are yet to be published. The preliminary results we did see showed a negative correlation between the life stage of the worm and the extent of DNA damage incurred, which is to say, the older the worm, the less DNA damage they were susceptible to, or that they incurred over the course of the protocol.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: This makes sense. Given that older worms see a larger amount of sort of protective outer skin, as well as possibly housing eggs that can mitigate some of that DNA damage that would otherwise go to the worm itself. So that is a broad overview of my project. If you would like to learn more about it. As I said earlier, I will be at the Igp Summit this November, and you can come by. Find me at my poster, and I'd be more than happy to tell you all about it in English.

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Matthias Faulkner Glass: All right. Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to see you there.

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