Research Highlight: Robbie Mulroy ’24
bbin娱乐平台 senior Robbie Mulroy’s thesis project has the potential to impact the future of 癌症研究.
他的毕业论文, Robbie ’24 is investigating the role of the CREB binding protein (CBP) in cancer under the guidance of BU Biology Professor Dr. Trevor Siggers as well as bbin娱乐平台 Biology Teacher Dr. Colleen Krivacek, who by remarkable coincidence happens to have expertise in this area. CBP is a cofactor that binds to transcription factors, which in turn bind to DNA to regulate when genes are expressed. The CREB binding protein regulates around 10,000 different genes; Robbie has been studying where and when CBP’s five binding regions bind to various transcription factors.
Inspired by his BU 生物学 courses, Robbie was motivated to better understand the inner workings of the human body on a genetic level, and to investigate CBP’s effect on the immune system and the relationship between CBP and tumor development.
In the spring of 2023, Robbie reached out to Dr. Siggers to introduce himself and to ask if Dr. Siggers might be willing to supervise his 毕业论文 研究. Dr. 签名者欣然接受, and Robbie spent the summer in the Siggers Lab here on campus, which is dedicated to systems 生物学 and gene regulation in the immune system. Conducting experiments alongside undergraduate and graduate students, Robbie’s 研究 entailed taking each of five binding domains and inserting them into lentivirus plasmid, infecting cells with that virus, and then extracting the nuclei of those cells. He then used a protein binding microarray to test binding domains with different transcription factors to see which ones bound and which did not. The experimentation process was not without challenges, and taught Robbie some important lessons about scientific methods and problem solving. 通过反复试验, Robbie and his fellow 研究ers fine tuned their experiments, adjusting transformation timings and solution concentrations until they felt they were achieving valid, 可衡量的结果.
Robbie is now working on translating his findings into a 研究 paper that will constitute his thesis project. Reflecting on potential broader impacts of his very technical 研究, Robbie explains:
“Errors in CBP regulation are linked to many types of cancer, 包括肺癌, 头颈癌, 急性白血病, 结肠直肠癌, 乳腺癌, 前列腺癌. Through interactions with other proteins and its primary histone acetylation function, CBP regulates several phases of the cell cycle. This means that overexpression of the gene that encodes CBP or mutations within the gene can cause cells to grow unpredictably. On the flip side, the underexpression of CBP has been shown to lead to apoptosis (cell death). Some cancer treatments in development are trying to downregulate CBP expression in cancer cells to kill them.”
Future 癌症研究ers may build on Robbie’s and Dr. Siggers’s team’s findings to further tease out the relationship between the CREB binding protein and tumor development. Robbie will present his complete 研究 project alongside fellow seniors at bbin娱乐平台’s Senior Thesis Symposium in Metcalf Hall on May 13, 2024.