Roundworms used in cancer research - RNAi

Roundworms used in cancer research
December 6, 2006
By Anna Faltermeier
Kansan.com
KU researchers are making discoveries about the role of genetics in cancer by researching tiny roundworms, about one millimeter in length.
Erik Lundquist, associate professor of molecular biosciences, said the roundworms are ideal for research because their genomes have been completely sequenced and they share a majority of genes with humans.
This enables researchers to make discoveries about the worms? genes that can be applied to human genes.
?Worms and humans had a common ancestor,? Lundquist said.
Researchers hope to better understand the role of genes in cancer development and drug resistance.
Lundquist said his research focused on the development of the nervous system.
We look at what happens to the organism when a gene is knocked out. The more we understand about these genes, the better we can understand cancer.
-Erik Lundquist, associate professor of molecular biosciences
He said he makes discoveries about genes by looking at mutants, or organisms with a genetic mutation.
?We look at what happens to the organism when a gene is knocked out,? Lundquist said. ?The more we understand about these genes, the better we can understand cancer.?
Lundquist said knocking out a gene?s function was kind of like taking spark plugs out of a car and then observing how it runs.
Lundquist identified a worm gene that is associated with myotonic dystrophy type I: a form of muscular dystrophy in humans. He said the gene affects muscles, gonads and the nervous system.
Lisa Timmons, assistant professor of molecular biosciences, has researched genetics using the worms for about eight years. She said they?re ideal to use in the lab because they?re cheap and easy to grow.
Timmons studies RNAi, or how a cell can knock out a gene?s function when double stranded RNA is injected into the worm.
The majority of her research focuses on cancer and how genes are related to the treatment of cancer.
Timmons said the lifecycle of the worms was about three days. Some experiments use over 25,000 worms, but some use only two.
?It just depends on the question we?re trying to answer with our research,? he said.
Lindsey Roe, research assistant in Timmons? lab, has worked daily with the worms for over three years.
The human biology graduate from Shawnee said she doesn?t think the worms were gross.
?They have a lot of similar structures as humans,? Roe said.
Timmons and Lundquist plan to continue their research and keep finding new information that provides insight to human diseases.