{"id":1031,"date":"2013-07-15T08:21:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T08:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2023-09-26T13:43:52","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T13:43:52","slug":"alzheimers-research-at-duke-with-jackson-parker-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/2013\/07\/15\/alzheimers-research-at-duke-with-jackson-parker-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Alzheimer&#8217;s research at Duke with Jackson Parker &#8217;14"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><span style=\"font-family: Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial\">This summer I have been assisting in Alzheimer&#8217;s research at Duke University Medical Center. We are studying the role that a specific mitochondrial transmembrane protein, called TOMM40, plays in the appearance of Late Onset Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease. TOMM40 is a channel protein, part of the Tom (Translocase of Outer Membrane) Complex, which plays an essential role in the importation of preproteins into the mitochondria. A genetic correlation has yet to be found between TOMM40 and APOE, considered the most influential genetic factor concerning Late Onset Alzheimer&#8217;s disease; however, mitochondrial disfunction is a recognizable effect of Alzheimer&#8217;s, which may or may not be attributed to mutated TOMM40 protein. In lab, I have performed pulverizations, homogenizations, protein determinations, and Western Blotting on both transvected mouse brains (offspring of heterozygous mice to progeny TOMM40 gene as well as a transvected human TOMM40 gene) and flash-frozen human brain tissue samples. Not only has this been a hugely educational experience, it has also been really entertaining using all of the instrumentation as well as handling liquid nitrogen despite a few instances of cold burn. My position at Duke is as a volunteer unpaid intern, but the experience is invaluable. I highly recommend to all biology majors that if the opportunity to participate in a biologic or chemical lab is available, be it paid or unpaid, take the chance because it is a prime time opportunity to participate in a collaborative environment that we are all working towards each year at H-SC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1032\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/07\/IMG_0257.jpeg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1032\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1032\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/07\/IMG_0257-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Whole mouse brain before pulverization for tissue prep<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_1033\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/07\/IMG_0258.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1033\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1033\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2013\/07\/IMG_0258-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1033\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mouse brain tissue after liquid nitrogen freezing and pulverization<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer I have been assisting in Alzheimer&#8217;s research at Duke University Medical Center. We are studying the role that a specific mitochondrial transmembrane protein, called TOMM40, plays in the appearance of Late Onset Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease. TOMM40 is a channel &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/2013\/07\/15\/alzheimers-research-at-duke-with-jackson-parker-14\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2154,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions\/2154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}