Below is a transcript of our conversation with Dr. Eric Peterson, Assistant Professor, CMU’s College of Medicine
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. As I read through the articles written by my colleagues at University Communications here at CMU, I find topics of interest or subjects I haven't shared yet with you on Central Focus. Then sometimes it's the headline that makes me stop and take notice. For example, can a glowing protein used by shrimp to evade predators help cure diseases like cancer? Well, not only did I stop and take notice, I knew I needed to find out what was up with a headline like this. Dr. Eric Peterson, Assistant Professor in CMU's College of Medicine, is the guy hanging out with the shrimp, so, I spent some time hanging out with him…
First question then is the current research you're working on a starting point for you or is this building off prior research that you did or that you're picking up from somewhere else on campus or another colleague at another institution? How did you come into the work you're doing now?
Eric Peterson:
So, it's a combination of all three. So, this is building off of a line of research that I've been doing since Graduate School where I was applying similar technologies based on bioluminescence and then building on my post-doctoral work in synthetic biology, designing various bioluminescent based biosensors, and now collaborating with different researchers on campus to adapt them to various basic biology questions.
DN:
I figured you'd mention that term bioluminescence. What exactly are we talking about when we use that term?
EP:
So, that refers to light emitted by living organisms. So, there's too many for me to count that have evolved in different ways in nature. Actually, an example of convergent evolution, where organisms from different domains of life have evolved a similar trait. So, things like fireflies, for example on land or these deep-sea shrimp, various bacteria or even fungi, they've all evolved different ways to produce their own. Light in that in all of those cases, it involves an enzyme catalyzing a small organic molecule, and that's the enzymes called luciferase. The small molecule luciferin. And when the enzyme catalyzes that small molecule, it releases light in the form of photons. So, a lot of these different organisms have organs or compartments that house these components to carry out those reactions, and we're adapting those enzymes to use in the lab, taking DNA from these organisms or synthetic DNA to create these proteins in the lab. And we're modifying them to report biological events.
DN:
The lights, the proteins. If we begin to look at this as getting from point A to point B, the shrimp are not the source of the cure. But how has your research beginning to look at that as the role that, this trait in the shrimp could play towards a cure?
EP:
So yeah, where (the) these particular shrimp come into play is we have the DNA sequence that encodes that protein responsible for emitting light. So, we synthesize that for use in cultured human cells, not directly taken from humans, can order them online. Umm, so, we take the a DNA sequence that will encode this protein and we modify it by fusing it to other proteins or parts of proteins that are involved in different biological processes. And the goal is to modify these bioluminescent enzymes so that they only produce light when a certain biological event that we're interested in is happening. For example, one goal is to make these bioluminescent sensors. Only produce light when there is aberrant growth factor signaling, which is highly relevant to a lot of hard to treat cancers.
DN:
Well for the work then that you have started and the way it is collaborative with other folks on campus and at other institutions, we look forward to the progress as you see the applications and what can be learned from all this. Dr. Eric Peterson, thank you very much for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. We appreciate that.
EP:
Thanks for inviting me.
