"Kids Conquering Cancer: Flipping the hierarchy to find new diet-based interventions for EGFR and HPV-driven cancers"

March 09, 2022

Information

Yale Cancer Center Grand Rounds | March 8, 2022

Presentation by: Alana M. O'Reilly, PhD

ID7516

To CiteDCA Citation Guide

00:00My great pleasure to introduce our
00:02grand round speaker doctor Lana Riley.
00:04She's the 1st in water.
00:06Hope is going to be a long series
00:07of lecturers speaking on education,
00:09training and career development.
00:11This was actually Barbara Burtness idea,
00:13so Doctor Riley Hills to us from
00:14the Fox Chase Cancer Center where
00:16she's in associate professor in
00:18the Molecular therapeutics program.
00:19She's a scientific director of the
00:21immersion science program at Fox Chase,
00:23and she's also the executive
00:25director of the Eccles Institute,
00:28which is a hub where students,
00:29teachers and scientists.
00:30All joined forces to focus on
00:32critical biomedical problems,
00:34such as dietary effects on cancer.
00:37They're developing,
00:37cutting edge projects,
00:39and they enhancing scientific leadership
00:41within the community in Philadelphia.
00:43For for these efforts, Dr.
00:45Riley recently received the Elizabeth W.
00:47Jones Award for Excellence in Education
00:49from the Genetics Society of America.
00:51Among her many accolades,
00:53she received her pH D in cell and
00:55developmental biology at Harvard
00:56and a research interest involved
00:58nutritional mechanisms that influence
01:00stem cell function and development.
01:02She's the recipient of multiple NIH
01:04awards for her research on stem
01:07cells and epithelial homeostasis,
01:08and today she's going to be talking
01:10to us both about her outreach and
01:12education and her own research.
01:14In a talk that's entitled kids
01:16conquering cancer,
01:17flipping the hierarchy to find
01:19new diet based interventions for
01:21EGFR and HPV driven cancers.
01:23So, without further ado,
01:24it's my pleasure to turn the
01:26platform over to Doctor O'Reilly.
01:33It's really a pleasure to be here
01:34and thank you for inviting me.
01:36I'm also my very first research mentor.
01:40Anton Bennett is one of your faculty
01:43members and everything I know I
01:45learned from Anton and Venelles lab.
01:47So yeah, today I'm going to talk to
01:50you about mostly about our diet based
01:52programs involving high school students.
01:55So one of the things I want you all to start
01:58thinking about as we start here is why.
02:00Why did you enter science?
02:02A lot of times you know people ask
02:04us this question in all kinds of
02:07different applications and most of
02:09the answers are fairly similar.
02:11A little bit canned.
02:12I've loved science since childhood.
02:14I like to answer questions.
02:17I have some aspect of love love,
02:20love for science here or I care
02:23about somebody very much.
02:24So one of the things that we wanna
02:26do is to connect these puzzle pieces
02:28together to make an inclusive environment
02:30so that everyone can participate.
02:32So why do we even want inclusion?
02:34Why does it matter if we're all kind of
02:36similar people with similar ideas and
02:38we're going to work together better, right?
02:40But but that sort of limits our discoveries,
02:43right?
02:43So if we don't embrace.
02:45The life experiences and knowledge
02:47of all different types of people.
02:49Then we're essentially missing things
02:51that we could otherwise gather together.
02:54So why is inclusion so hard?
02:56Why is it so hard like we keep hearing
02:59about diversity, equity inclusion efforts,
03:02and failing and failing and failing?
03:05Why? Why is this so hard?
03:07So one of the really big problems we have,
03:10especially in a city like Philadelphia,
03:11which is 80% underrepresented
03:14minorities in science,
03:16is that we have a major attrition
03:19of scientists as they move up in
03:22the in the scientific pipeline.
03:24So in terms of bachelors degrees,
03:26it's still under representation,
03:27but this number plummets by
03:29the time you get to postdocs.
03:32And then there has been exactly
03:330 gains in full professors for
03:36underrepresented minorities.
03:38In many decades. So what's the deal?
03:41Why is this happening?
03:42One of the reasons is this why the
03:45the why that people who are minority
03:47scientists enter this field is to
03:50help address health challenges
03:52of their own communities,
03:55and so the topic choice in papers recently
03:57published by the NIH about their own grants,
04:00shows that awards to African American
04:02and black scientists are prohibitively
04:04low because of the topic choice of
04:06addressing the health disparities
04:08that plague their own communities.
04:10And this.
04:11Makes no sense,
04:12right?
04:13This makes no sense,
04:14but recruiting people into science to
04:17address the problems that other people
04:19can address and then pushing them out
04:21by not allowing them to have funding.
04:23So these are both very excellent papers
04:25for anyone who is interested in this
04:28topic and wants to read more about it.
04:30So this lack of representation in
04:32science and medicine is a primary
04:34driver of health disparities.
04:35Just recently,
04:36if we highlight the COVID-19
04:39pandemic the underrepresentation
04:41in science is exactly reflected by the
04:43numbers of deaths of COVID-19 with black
04:46Americans having the highest rates of
04:49death and the lowest representation.
04:51This is the same across all chronic diseases,
04:54including cardiovascular disease,
04:56hypertension, diabetes, and and also cancer.
05:01So here in Philadelphia,
05:03our demographics are flipped from the
05:05predominant demographics in science,
05:07where 70% of US faculty research
05:11scientists are white. In contrast,
05:14only 5% or fewer are African American or
05:17black in the school district of Philadelphia.
05:20This is opposite, so our predominant
05:23populations are black and Hispanic,
05:25and these students essentially have no
05:27chance of achieving a research career
05:30given the predominant prevailing culture.
05:33So this is something that we want to change.
05:35This first of all,
05:36is not fair and second of all,
05:38puts people in a situation if they
05:40don't even try to pursue science
05:42because they know they have no chance.
05:44And our goal is to try to help Philadelphia
05:46address these health disparities in COVID-19,
05:48cancer, diabetes,
05:50and Alzheimer's that are are really
05:54destroying their communities.
05:56So how are we going to do this?
05:58We already know that 77% of college students
06:02switch out of STEM majors after one semester,
06:04we created a program where 72% of
06:07our graduates actually continue
06:09conducting paid research in college
06:11completely flipping these numbers.
06:14Fewer than 6% of Philadelphia and other
06:17inner city students complete their
06:19stem degrees with fewer than 10% of
06:21those completing graduate degrees.
06:23In contrast, 100% of our students
06:26complete their stem degrees on time.
06:28So how do we do this?
06:29This is a big change, right?
06:31A big change.
06:32So we created a program
06:35built on citizen science.
06:37So a staircase of discovery
06:39is comprised of four steps.
06:41Which level one is crowdsourcing,
06:43and many people have heard of apps where
06:45people can measure clouds, and you know,
06:47say how many animals they saw.
06:50In the woods near their house.
06:51So it's sort of like like an observation
06:54where the data gets transmitted back
06:56to scientists who interpret it.
06:58The second level is distributed intelligence,
07:00so this the citizens can actually
07:02collect the data and start to
07:04think about what it means.
07:05Then participatory science,
07:07where the students or participants
07:11define the problems that participate
07:13in the data collection,
07:14and then finally where they're basically
07:17independent scientists like like all of us.
07:19So we created a program that
07:22matches these steps,
07:23starting with students as
07:24young as fifth grade.
07:26So our primary participants
07:27are 5th to 12th grade.
07:29They start in school,
07:31they do their first research
07:32experience in school,
07:33then they can continue focusing on a
07:37junk food diet more in their classroom,
07:40summer camps and undergraduate bridge to
07:42research that's built on a graduate rotation,
07:44and finally independent
07:46research and foxchase labs.
07:48And by the time they're ready
07:49to go to college.
07:50Remember,
07:50this is just before college.
07:52They already have up to two years of
07:55research experience under their belt
07:57and tend to get paid research positions
07:59their first year of college,
08:00and then they go up from there.
08:04So we started this program in 2013.
08:06This is Darius well and she's the science
08:09educator, curriculum guru genius,
08:11who created basically translates how we
08:14do Advanced Research into something that
08:16can be done in high school classrooms.
08:20And since 2013 we've trained over
08:222000 students using this method.
08:25This is 570 of them on the steps
08:27of the Franklin Institute,
08:28where they came to present their
08:30Cancer Research data in 2019.
08:33As a collective group sharing with each
08:36other with scientists with the community
08:38that there are 18 new cancer gene
08:41hits of nutrients that affect cancer.
08:43We're also collecting tons of education,
08:45data points, and 60% of these new
08:49scientists are underrepresented.
08:51Currently in biomedical research.
08:54So does it actually work?
08:56Do the students want to continue so this
08:58is a kind of a complicated diagram,
09:00but just focus on the the Blues and the Reds,
09:03which are the bad things, right?
09:04You don't see much blue and red
09:06in any of these pie charts,
09:07indicating that the students make
09:09tremendous gains in life skills,
09:11including peer collaboration,
09:12confidence adjusting to projects,
09:14and thinking outside the box that
09:16they can apply to any career.
09:17And keep in mind that these students
09:19are unselected.
09:20This is a bunch of 9th, 10th,
09:2111th and 12th graders who are taking a class.
09:24Their teacher decided to participate
09:26in the program.
09:27They are not pre selected or filled out.
09:29An application saying they're
09:30interested in science,
09:31so this is actually a fairly.
09:35A fairly huge gain.
09:37He also made gains in research skills,
09:40how studying the topic
09:41addresses real-world issues,
09:42which is something that's
09:44incredibly important given the
09:45COVID-19 pandemic and other issues.
09:48How to formulate a hypothesis,
09:49explain projects and and prepare
09:51and present their work and then
09:54finally the the most important part
09:56perhaps is inclusion and interest,
09:59whereas students think and feel
10:01like a scientist.
10:02We have a little work to do on
10:04feeling like part of the scientific
10:07community to make sure that that
10:09that number that red bar goes down
10:11and then this was something that we
10:13never in a million years expected.
10:14We sort of expected.
10:16Maybe 20% would be interested
10:17in being a scientist.
10:18But 56% saying maybe was mind blowing, right?
10:22Think about all of the things
10:24these kids could be and now just
10:25from this one little experience,
10:26they're thinking.
10:27Maybe I want to be a scientist and even more,
10:30the numbers are even higher for
10:31students who want to do more research,
10:33emphasizing the disconnect between
10:35what students think of as science
10:38and now what they know as research.
10:41So in 2019 we had over 1000
10:44students in one run,
10:45our biggest auditorium at Fox
10:47Chase only holds 320 people.
10:49So we created a nonprofit organization
10:52called the E close Institute,
10:54which is a hub where students,
10:57teachers, scientists,
10:58community,
10:58and hopefully we'll be building
11:01accessible databases for everyone,
11:03come together to try to solve
11:06these community health problems.
11:08So we have summer camps where
11:11students participate for a
11:13week, really delving into
11:14high level techniques,
11:16including running gels, doing microscopy,
11:19lots of pipetting and measuring skills.
11:23And in in the summer camps again,
11:25more even more students want to be
11:28scientists with nobody saying they no.
11:30Nobody said no,
11:31I don't ever want to be a scientist.
11:33And 90% of the students
11:35want to do more research.
11:36And so one of the things I think we
11:38need to think about in general is how to
11:41infuse research into more other subjects.
11:43Because the students love doing the research,
11:45even those who don't necessarily
11:47want to be scientists.
11:49So this is our undergraduate
11:50bridge to research.
11:51This is actually where we started
11:52in 2013 and we have 230 students
11:55who've now completed this program.
11:58They have started to grow up
12:00now since we started in 2013.
12:02We have 16% in medical school
12:05and absolutely shocking 17.3%
12:08pursuing PHD's in biomedicine.
12:11We have a number of them who are doing
12:14gap years in research labs 22 percent,
12:1718% are engineers and 6%.
12:19Are in other stem related careers,
12:21especially business entrepreneurship,
12:24math type stuff?
12:27So yeah,
12:27so since this has been working so well,
12:29we expanded this to be true
12:31community science.
12:31Having an out outreach citizen science
12:34event in the fall where we had church
12:38members and kids and families.
12:40Oh that's all blurry,
12:42all participating in providing
12:44their thoughts,
12:45their ideas and their input and how
12:48to solve the problem of diabetes.
12:51And in the Philadelphia community.
12:55So how does this all work? Like?
12:56Why is this working better than other
12:58things and the the key thing is the Y.
13:01So this is a. This is a a video of
13:04one of our presenters that emphasizes
13:08the importance of the why this
13:10project I was most interested in
13:12studying squamous cell carcinoma,
13:14which is a type of skin cancer that affects
13:16over a million people in the US every year.
13:18One of those people was my grandmother
13:19who I lost to disease in 2015.
13:21You might notice a small blue butterfly
13:23floating around front presentation,
13:24that's why. Joining us today.
13:28So one of the most important things
13:31for our students is that they are
13:33here to cure somebody they love,
13:35and so one of the things I think
13:37we lose sight of as scientists
13:39in our training is is that why?
13:41So we come in? Oh yeah,
13:43that's great that you came in
13:45because your your zeami is sick.
13:47But here's how we do things here.
13:48Here's the project I'm giving you
13:50and so this is something I want
13:52everybody here to really start
13:54thinking about is do you know what
13:56the why is for all of your trainees?
13:58Does it matter right?
14:00Is that why they're still here?
14:01Is that what's driving them to
14:03succeed in a very difficult,
14:05particularly funding environment?
14:06And is that something that that can be
14:10leveraged to identify new ways to treat,
14:13you know,
14:14treat and prevent cancer or other diseases?
14:17So diet is a particularly accessible.
14:20Topic for children.
14:21Everybody knows what's good to eat,
14:24what's bad to eat.
14:26Children in particular have body image
14:28challenges and then many people in
14:30their families also have more advanced
14:32diseases like diabetes and cancer
14:34that they want to understand and help.
14:36So we start with the question
14:39of what should I eat?
14:40Our main goal is to improve research literacy
14:42so that students understand what research is,
14:45how it's conducted,
14:46what the vocabulary is,
14:48what's expected of them and including that.
14:51The existing hierarchy.
14:53So the the program is student centered,
14:55it's transdisciplinary.
14:56It promotes self efficacy of each
14:59and every student and it improves
15:01the agency of the instructors and
15:04the students to take charge of their
15:06own research questions and projects.
15:11So why diet? Why does diet matter?
15:14You know my my research lab
15:16works on how nutrients impact
15:18signal transduction pathways,
15:19which is the core of how we
15:22started and in this area.
15:24For this large scale outreach program and
15:27diet is unambiguously a key to health,
15:30so this is a current sort of
15:32diagram of the recommendations for
15:33a healthy diet where you have.
15:36Lots of fruits and vegetables.
15:38Probably too many grains.
15:39A small amount of of meat and
15:42protein products and some dairy
15:43with a very tiny little pie.
15:46Slice of junk food here.
15:48And I think most people
15:50don't really eat this.
15:52Most people.
15:52It's a little bit expanded down
15:54here on this end and reduced
15:56a lot here on this end,
15:57but this type of healthy diet
15:59is known to reduce the symptoms
16:01of aging and to promote healthy
16:03aging throughout the lifetime.
16:05So we all know, right?
16:07We all know what we should be eating,
16:08but we don't always do that.
16:10So what do we do? How do?
16:11How do we make this better?
16:13There's diets.
16:14Dietary cookbooks that are about longevity,
16:18reducing calories, eat less,
16:20live longer, and this.
16:22These diets are actually very,
16:24very well supported by basic
16:25science data showing that in every
16:28Organism caloric restriction extends
16:30lifespan and improves health.
16:33Most recently, intermittent feeding.
16:35Is is another,
16:38probably much easier way to reduce
16:41the the metabolism challenges that
16:43occur during unhealthy aging in a
16:46similar way to caloric restriction and so,
16:49so how do we leverage these types of diets?
16:52Is intermittent feeding a good thing for
16:54for a young teenager with a body image issue?
16:57Probably not.
16:57So how do we start to have the conversations?
17:00How do we promote health through
17:02diet and how do we leverage chemicals
17:04in the diet to try to improve?
17:07Existing therapies so another really cool
17:09thing about diet is it's very cultural,
17:11so every religion has very
17:15specific dietary recommendations.
17:17There is herbal medicine that is widely
17:19used in almost all areas of the world
17:22and then just think about where you're from,
17:24right?
17:25So there's some kind of a cultural
17:27cuisine where you're from.
17:28That is something that's to
17:30be celebrated in holidays.
17:31And all of these things,
17:32so why not celebrate those
17:34same things to promote health?
17:38So in the United States,
17:39a lot of people do.
17:40The herbal medicine type thing
17:43using dietary supplements,
17:44and just as a as as a thing to note,
17:47dietary supplements are
17:49not regulated by the FDA.
17:51The FDA is not authorized to
17:53review dietary supplement
17:54products before they are marketed,
17:56and so we are relying completely
17:58on manufacturers and distributors
17:59to make sure the products are
18:01safe before they go to market.
18:03So no, dietary supplements are
18:05regulated by the government.
18:0770% of cancer patients are
18:08using dietary supplements.
18:10Compared to 56.6% of the general population,
18:13this is an extraordinarily high number.
18:16These studies were done on
18:18predominantly white patients with
18:20very few I couldn't actually
18:22find any studies that were done
18:24exclusively on minority patients.
18:26The one study I did find said
18:29that 76.3% of Hispanic patients
18:30do not tell their doctor that
18:32they're taking the supplements,
18:34which I think is true for most people.
18:37So this is something that's
18:39also important to.
18:40Consider is that people are
18:42taking stuff that might be
18:44interrupting the the therapy
18:46that they're being prescribed.
18:48So what's our goal?
18:49Our goal is to understand how every
18:51chemical that you can consume as part
18:53of a diet impacts signal transduction
18:55pathways that are involved in disease.
18:58So this is a proteome diagram from Joseph LA.
19:02So the entire Drosophila genome.
19:06Translated into proteins
19:07with interaction maps here.
19:09So what we would like to do is
19:11take each and every compound that's
19:13found in the diet and identify those
19:15that inhibit or activate individual
19:17proteins to create a new diet map
19:20on top of the proteome map so that
19:23we can create tailored diets for
19:25individual diseases based on the genetics,
19:28the protein expression,
19:30and the the dietary access of the patient.
19:34So that's obviously an
19:36extremely daunting task,
19:37like it's something where our usual
19:39one protein one project 1 mechanism,
19:42one person is not going to work,
19:44and so this is one of the reasons
19:47that we think that.
19:48Getting high school students involved,
19:51which is a population that's
19:53eager and in desperate need of
19:55having these types of experiences.
19:57We have 16 million high school
19:58students in the United States
20:00with fifty 550 million worldwide.
20:02So suddenly a daunting task maybe
20:04becomes a little bit more feasible.
20:06Each of these students comes from
20:08a family that eats right.
20:10They have their own particular types
20:12of cuisine that are important to them,
20:14some of which may have chemical
20:17compounds that can inhibit.
20:18Cancer signaling pathways to enhance
20:21the efficacy of existing therapies.
20:25So how do we do this?
20:27We have a bunch of dietary supplements or
20:29other things that the students bring in.
20:32We feed them to fruit flies,
20:34either wild type fruit flies or flys
20:36bearing mutations in oncogenes,
20:38tumor suppressor genes,
20:39or more recently in pathways
20:41related to diabetes.
20:43And then we screen to see what happens to
20:45the developmental life cycle of the fly.
20:47So do they continue to lay eggs?
20:49Do they develop into pupae and
20:52then do they close as adults?
20:55And So what we found is the most
20:57reproducible assay is counting the the
20:59number of pupae on the side of the vial.
21:02So you can see here.
21:03These are like the little larvae,
21:04and then they crawl up and become pupa
21:07like a chrysalis for a butterfly.
21:10And if we have hundreds of people
21:13scoring the same exact sample,
21:15we actually get pretty tight.
21:17Pretty tight statistics for
21:19determining the the numbers of pupae,
21:22and so you can clearly see that
21:24wild type can be compared to loss
21:26of function mutants in P-10,
21:27which are fairly similar to gain of
21:30function mutants in PI3 kinase which
21:32are in the same related pathway.
21:34Things like the FOXO mutants have
21:36much more broad variability,
21:38so it's going to be a little
21:40bit more difficult to interpret.
21:41The results of those experiments,
21:43so this type of experiment could
21:44be done with any gene that anybody
21:46is interested in,
21:47for which there is a mutant in the fly model.
21:52So we focus with the students initially
21:55on basics, so signal transduction.
21:56You have a leg and you have a receptor.
21:59You have an effect.
22:00Are you drive proliferation
22:01that causes cancer?
22:02Keep it simple and a cancer passed away.
22:04You could have too much lag and
22:06that drives the whole pathway.
22:07You can mutate the receptor or
22:08you can have a mutant effector,
22:10all of which will give the same outcome
22:13of having too much proliferation.
22:16So it since 2013 we've had a big
22:19project on the EGF receptor pathway and
22:21all of the genes that you see here.
22:24We have representative viable mutations
22:26and flies which are modifiable.
22:29Meaning if a compound makes the
22:33phenotype worse, that will be detected.
22:35If the compound makes the phenotype better,
22:37that will be detected because these are
22:39mutants that are not complete nulls,
22:41so the the great thing about this is
22:43that many high schools have eight
22:45groups of students who are doing experiments.
22:48Together so we give them sequential
22:50mutants in the EGF receptor signaling
22:52pathway.
22:53Have them screen the same drugs
22:55and in doing so we can map exactly
22:58which of the components of the
23:01signaling pathway are affected.
23:05So in order to approve the
23:07proof of principle for this,
23:08we started by treating flies with gefitinib,
23:11which is an inhibitor of the EGF receptor,
23:14and what happens is the same thing that
23:16happens if you have a loss of function,
23:18EGF receptor mutant, which is you
23:20fuse these respiratory structures
23:22called dorsal appendages on the egg,
23:25so in a wild type there are two
23:26and in a in a gefitinib treated
23:28or an EGF receptor mutant.
23:30There's only one.
23:32So this is a very robust,
23:33easy to score phenotype for anybody,
23:35just even using a magnifying glass.
23:37And then we screened a bunch of
23:40different kinase inhibitors and
23:41the ones in red are known, e.g.,
23:43F receptor inhibitors and you can see
23:45that all of them had some effect on
23:48induction of dorsal appendage fusion.
23:50There were a couple others imatinib
23:52which inhibits ABL kinase and miss
23:55it nib which inhibits VEGF receptor.
23:58Also had had effects which is something
24:00will follow up at some time later.
24:02Uhm, we also noticed that at a
24:06low dose of gefitinib you have
24:07the dorsal appendage defects,
24:09but normal numbers of eggs.
24:10If you increase the dose now,
24:12you reduce the numbers of eggs,
24:13which turns out to be a much more
24:15easy and robust to score phenotype,
24:17which is loss of development.
24:20And then finally,
24:22there's excellent reagents for
24:24measuring downstream signaling,
24:25including Erk activity,
24:26so here is no good fit in.
24:28If you see nice Erk activity and
24:30as soon as you start adding the
24:32gefitinib you you inhibit the Erk
24:34downstream of the EGF receptor
24:36and you know these are like the
24:38students learn how to do this and
24:39they do it once and so you get some
24:42variability in the loading but.
24:44At the end of the day,
24:45what we're looking for is something to
24:47pursue in a professional lab down the road.
24:50So once the students started
24:52screening the dietary supplements,
24:53the first thing that popped
24:55out with Selena methionine,
24:56which gives an EGF receptor like
24:58phenotype of a single dorsal appendage.
25:00You also see dramatically reduced
25:03numbers of pupil pupil cases,
25:05meaning that the Salina methionine
25:07is behaving like a high dose of
25:09gefitinib innocence of reducing
25:11the numbers of eggs laid.
25:15So in order to figure out if this was real,
25:17so one student doesn't mean it's right,
25:20they could have killed everything, right?
25:21Like you, you just don't know.
25:23So we put this into a classroom project.
25:26For this 570 students I showed
25:27you on the steps of the Franklin
25:30Institute and they screened.
25:32All of the steps in the EGF
25:35receptor signaling pathway.
25:37Mutants in all of these different
25:39steps for effects by selenium and
25:41what we see is that the high dose of
25:45selenomethionine basically affects everybody,
25:47meaning it's probably toxic for any fly,
25:50but the low dose was actually quite
25:52variable such that only rats and Corkscrew,
25:55which is the fly homologue of
25:57the tyrosine phosphatase SHP two,
25:58were the only two affected and they
26:00were affected in opposite ways.
26:02Such that the wrasse mutants were
26:04less viable and the Corkscrew mutants
26:07were more viable upon treatment
26:09with Selena methionine.
26:11So then we use the Erk activation again.
26:14Here's wild type.
26:15This is the activated EGF receptor
26:17mutant you see a dramatic increase.
26:19We can also do this by immunostaining
26:22to see specifically which cells
26:25are affected by various treatments
26:27and what we found here is that
26:30the which was a surprise.
26:32We expected the Salina methionine
26:34to reduce the arc activity instead.
26:36If you compare the wild type here
26:38in lane one to this lane over here,
26:41this Lena methionine.
26:43Actually blasted the Erk signaling bypassing
26:47any type of inhibition of VEGF receptor so.
26:52This turned out to be true in
26:54multiple different cancer cells,
26:55which the students went on to do
26:57in foxchase labs in the summer.
26:59So breast cancer,
27:00colorectal cancer,
27:01and pancreatic cancer with
27:02gain of function RASP mutations
27:04all showed the similar effect,
27:06with SELENOMETHIONINE actually increasing
27:08Erk activity up until at least in
27:12two cases the dose got too high.
27:14On K CO2 which is a non rast dependent
27:17colorectal cancer cell line had less
27:19of an effect suggesting that like in
27:22the fly the gain of function wrasse
27:25mutations make the the cells more
27:28sensitive to this Selena methionine effect.
27:31So we've done this with it.
27:32We're still in the process of
27:34finishing finishing this project.
27:36Over 300 students have worked on it,
27:39in addition to the 1001 students who
27:41did the screening in the classrooms.
27:43So it's going to be a lot of authors
27:46on the paper that we're planning
27:47to publish this year,
27:48but we have a number of other
27:50compounds that inhibit specific
27:51components of this pathway,
27:52so burdock root is a very potent
27:55inhibitor in this case of AKT.
27:59Butcher's Broom is an activator of Corkscrew,
28:02as is Selena methionine and grape seed
28:06extract inhibits raft, so so this is
28:09something where you can see like.
28:10Eventually we will kind of have a a really
28:13nice map of this particular pathway and the
28:15different compounds that that can affect it.
28:18So this was a project that I
28:20designed thinking it's accessible.
28:22It's easy, it's straightforward.
28:23It's part of the curriculum for the students.
28:26What they need to learn in high school,
28:28and then we started having students
28:30come in with their own ideas.
28:31So one student brought in apricot seeds,
28:33which is mom who was a breast cancer
28:36survivor was taking as God's cure for cancer.
28:39It turns out as soon as you digest this,
28:41it turns into a molecule of cyanide
28:43and a molecule of benzaldehyde and
28:45women who are taking this are dying
28:48of cyanide poisoning.
28:49So this is a really serious public
28:51health issue that nobody reports to
28:52their doctor 'cause as soon as you tell
28:55your doctor I'm taking apricot seeds,
28:56they say you can die from cyanide poisoning.
29:00So, so this is something that's
29:02essentially people taking poison
29:04that needs to be addressed.
29:06Another student came in.
29:07Saying that her grandfather had stage
29:09four lung cancer and was eating 100
29:11live weevils in a glass of Sprite
29:14every day and it cured his stage.
29:16Four lung cancer and so this is,
29:19you know,
29:19another curiosity like you.
29:20Don't just tell people you shouldn't
29:22do that like we need to figure this
29:24out and it turns out what she found
29:26out was that the defense chemicals
29:27secreted by these weevils when
29:29they get dropped into a glass of
29:30Sprite are actually very potent.
29:32Chemotherapeutics against lung cancer.
29:34So so this is something where
29:36there's truth and there's danger.
29:38In in the same thing and these are not
29:40things that most scientists would be like.
29:42Oh let's go investigate weevils so so
29:45these are things that are happening
29:47in our communities that we don't know
29:49about and are extremely important.
29:51And finally,
29:51just last summer we had a kid come
29:53in who was interested in lean,
29:55which is a combination of codeine
29:58based cough syrup and Sprite.
30:00And kids are using this to get high
30:02and he was very concerned that his
30:04friends who were all doing this because
30:07it's healthier than taking drugs.
30:09We're going to get brain cancer and
30:11so these are the sorts of things that
30:13are going on that the students want
30:14to research because it's affecting
30:16the people they love and we don't
30:18want to bring them in and tell them
30:21that's not important because.
30:22This is important.
30:25So this is a project at all.
30:28I'll just highlight a lot,
30:29which is a a project designed by 5
30:32young ladies starting with Eliana here
30:34who was doing a cultural awareness
30:36project to find out what cancers
30:39particularly affect people from Puerto Rico,
30:41and So what she found is that Puerto
30:44Ricans have an extremely high rate
30:46of HPV based cervical
30:47cancer. Even though Hispanic
30:49girls were more like likely to
30:50get vaccinated than white girls,
30:52and so this was something that
30:54was really bothering her,
30:55so most of the studies have been
30:57done on HPV types 16 and 18.
30:59So here's 8100 cases of this.
31:03But it turns out that in
31:04Hispanic and black communities,
31:06other strains of HPV are more prevalent,
31:08and so these are not small numbers.
31:11So 1800 from these types,
31:14and then another 1200 from these
31:16types is is not a small number,
31:18and it turns out that many of these
31:20strains of the virus are not actually
31:22protected by available vaccines,
31:24so so this started a conversation
31:27among these predominantly minority
31:29women of what's going on with this.
31:31So there's a lot of.
31:34You know,
31:35sort of social reasons for for pointing
31:37fingers at why health disparities exist.
31:40So a lot of it has to do with poverty,
31:44access to health care and various
31:46life choices that are generally
31:49considered explanations for why
31:50these health disparities exist.
31:52But Eliana's discovery,
31:53sort of made it seem like maybe
31:56there's some genetic basis
31:57to some of these differences.
31:59So Nicole Harrington came in
32:01with this concept that black
32:03mothers don't trust the medical
32:05community enough to get vaccinated,
32:07and so this is an example for the
32:09COVID-19 vaccine where you can
32:11see that black Americans had a
32:13very very low vaccination rate
32:15compared to white Americans.
32:17And similarly for the HPV vaccine,
32:20the same thing is true where?
32:23Hispanic and and black Americans are
32:26less likely to get vaccinated and
32:28then what we also need to really
32:32realize is that they they think the
32:35vaccine is harmful and even more that.
32:39You know?
32:39They think people are being treated
32:41like Guinea pigs by scientists like us,
32:44so so this is a really big issue
32:46in terms of how to get information
32:48out how to reduce this mistrust
32:50and our take on this is that we
32:52need to increase representation and
32:55understanding of the fears that the
32:58public has about these vaccines.
33:02So then we went down to the
33:04cellular molecular level,
33:05so HPV happens with a.
33:08Initial infection,
33:09but the virus can move into sort
33:13of the the basic sort of stem
33:17cell areas of the of the cervix,
33:19and then it can just hang out for
33:22awhile and then eventually it
33:24can come out and create invasive
33:27neoplasia and so this is a pathway
33:29that's that's basically mediated
33:31by inhibition of P53 and RB,
33:33which are two proteins that
33:35control the cell cycle,
33:37and so two students neelys and Allison.
33:40Decided to screen dietary supplements
33:42to find something that would kill
33:44flies bearing mutations in P53 or
33:46RB to sort of mimic virus infection
33:48and what they found was multiple
33:51components that drive a process
33:53called ferroptosis which is a
33:55type of iron dependent cell death
33:57and you can see here that.
33:59The P53 null flies are highly
34:02susceptible to acetaminophen,
34:04which is Tylenol or iron in
34:06terms of being killed.
34:08And then they went on and did a dose curve
34:10to find doses that really had little or
34:13no effect on wild type but still were
34:15were potent for RB and P53 mutants.
34:18And so we're very interested in this kind of
34:21idea that they came up with from their own.
34:24Experiences, and it turns out that
34:27HPV inhibits a receptor that is a
34:30major controller of of ferroptosis
34:33through a protein called G.
34:36PX4P53 is also a regulator of this process.
34:38Acetaminophen, which is one of the
34:41things that scored in the screen
34:43actually affects this whole process,
34:45and so a colleague of mine,
34:47Jeff Peterson, who's also at Fox Chase,
34:49is a lab that studies ferroptosis,
34:51and so they had two compounds, ESA.
34:54And harassed in that act in different
34:56ways to induce ferroptosis.
34:59And so we wanted to see.
35:01Whether the observations that the
35:03students made in the fly would be true
35:06also in HPV depending cancer cells,
35:08so this was done by Jesse Rynok with
35:11the help of postdoc and Jeff Slabtown
35:13who sing and what we see is differential
35:17sensitivity to the ESA compound,
35:20such that in cervical cancer cells,
35:23HPV positive cells are resistant to
35:25induction of ferroptosis and in the
35:27head and neck cancer cells there
35:29are actually more sensitive.
35:31And so this is something that we're
35:33trying to figure out now, like,
35:35what is the difference between these?
35:36And obviously the cells have more
35:38things going on in them other than
35:41just HPV infection.
35:42But we know that this was actually
35:45ferroptosis process because if you
35:47add an inhibitor of ferroptosis
35:49then you abrogated the the response.
35:53So using a different inducer of Ferroptosis,
35:57Calder,
35:57Aston there didn't seem to be any
36:00effect at all on HPV minus head
36:02and neck cancer cells,
36:04but there really was a dose dependent
36:08reduction increase in killing basically
36:10of the HPV positive cells that Jesse is
36:13going to be further exploring this summer.
36:16So the two projects together maybe actually
36:20centered on on one particular thing,
36:22which is selenium.
36:23Uh, which is an activator of GPX 4G.
36:27P X4 is a selenium dependent protein that
36:29prevents the production of lipid radicals,
36:32which are what causes this ferroptosis
36:35and at the same time we found
36:37that if we reduced Selena,
36:40if we increase selenomethionine
36:41in the EGF receptor pathway,
36:43we drive activity of ERC which we know I did.
36:46I didn't show,
36:47but it's through Corkscrew S HP2,
36:49which happens to also be a a tyrosine
36:51phosphatase that's regulated
36:52by these lipid radicals.
36:54And so one of the things that's kind
36:56of coming out just from this initial
36:59one single compound that we focused on
37:01is maybe there's a vulnerability in in.
37:04In these the head and neck cancer cells
37:06for for a dependence on selenium,
37:08such that if a restriction diet that
37:11reduces the levels of selenium is used
37:13in conjunction with existing therapies,
37:16maybe they'll work better.
37:19So all of this is to say that the
37:21Y really matters for the students,
37:23and the way our scientific culture
37:25is set up right now we have a very
37:28high level principle investigator.
37:29It goes down, down,
37:30down depending on the level of training
37:32such that high school students are
37:34gifted with science and what we would
37:36like to do is change that so that the
37:38high school students come in with
37:40the science they already have that
37:41we figure out what those projects,
37:43those questions those hypotheses are,
37:46and matched them to a scientist who is also.
37:48Interested in the same thing and
37:50so so that it comes in more as a,
37:53you know, appear kind of attack on
37:56the same problem and so one of the
37:59things I really want to say is that
38:00the culture matters and so this is
38:02a an image of a boardroom from Time
38:04magazine from a little while ago
38:06where you can see the top guys are are
38:09all up here talking down here to the
38:12diversity equity inclusion officers
38:13who are supposed to be the ones who
38:15are focused on changing the culture,
38:18but instead they're being lectured on.
38:19This is our culture.
38:21And so one of the things that's really
38:23important is to consider whether
38:25this is your lab meeting, right?
38:26If this is your lab meeting and you're
38:28not considering the ideas of the people
38:30down here at this end of the table,
38:32then that's something that's
38:34really time to change.
38:36Finally,
38:36one of the things that's really our job
38:39if we take underrepresented students
38:40into our lab is to ensure their safety.
38:43You need to be the shield against
38:46the systemic racism that's coming
38:48at them from every direction,
38:50every minute of every day so that
38:52they can run behind you in a way
38:54that they can thrive and bring
38:56these new ideas into biomedicine.
38:58And finally,
38:58like I just want to share my own
39:00experience that the way these
39:02students think has completely
39:04changed the way I think about an
39:06important scientific question.
39:07Such that the biology,
39:09the environment,
39:10and the lifestyle all have to be
39:12considered so that we can really
39:13address particularly health disparities
39:15in cancer and other diseases.
39:18So I just want to leave you with
39:21with our group our crew from
39:232019 remember their faces.
39:25This is the future of Cancer Research.
39:28Isabella,
39:29here on the right side is just
39:31got accepted to a Yale summer
39:34program and she's considering that,
39:36and I think 14 other other programs so,
39:39so we'll see whether she comes.
39:41So we've had a bunch of funding,
39:43a lots,
39:44lots of support that we're
39:45particularly excited about.
39:46A recent partnership with
39:48the American Cancer Society.
39:49For the E close programs to
39:51support 300 young ladies doing
39:53Cancer Research this summer,
39:55and the team is amazing,
39:57I already mentioned Dara.
39:58I have my lab who's who supports all
40:01the students summer learning and a
40:04whole bunch of foxchase mentors.
40:07Yeah, so that's it. Thank you.
40:14Thank you so much, Alana.
40:16I'd like to ask folks to put
40:18questions into the chat,
40:20and if you don't I can start off with one.
40:24If that's OK with you, then maybe Barbara,
40:25I'm sure has questions.
40:27So First off that was.
40:28That was a fascinating presentation in a
40:30real Tour de force that congratulations,
40:33a lot of questions about the nuts and bolts.
40:35So how do you fund this?
40:38How do you channel hundreds of
40:40high school students in 220
40:43labs at best at Fox Chase?
40:46Right,
40:47we don't. We can't write.
40:49You can't do that. You can't have 2000.
40:52I mean, we're we're actually hoping to
40:54reach 10,000 students a year by next year,
40:56and there's no way that we can put each
40:58and every one of those students into a lab.
40:59It's just not possible,
41:00and so that's what we're trying to flip.
41:02So when COVID-19 happened,
41:04it became unambiguous that
41:06students couldn't come to the lab.
41:07And So what we did was we created a hybrid
41:10program where we create labs in a box,
41:13and we mail them to the students
41:15who create the lab in their house.
41:17And so, because fruit flies are safe,
41:19the dietary supplements are over the counter.
41:22Everything that they research
41:23is over the counter.
41:25That doesn't mean it's safe,
41:26but that just means it's legal
41:28for them to investigate,
41:30and so they they do all of
41:32the research in their homes.
41:33And so all of the initial.
41:36Initial data collection and
41:38analysis is is done in a way where
41:40we don't actually need any space,
41:42so we also train teachers.
41:44We have, I think 32 now teacher partners,
41:48each training about 100 students a year,
41:50and so the teachers now we just we
41:54got an award that I don't think
41:56I'm allowed to say what it is.
41:57But it's really big and exciting.
41:59That's gonna pay for building of Eclose
42:02Labs in 10 Philadelphia schools this year.
42:06And so now the schools will.
42:07We each have a fully equipped lab,
42:09just like the clothes lab for the
42:11students to do the work there.
42:13Yeah, so.
42:14So yeah.
42:14So and then the other thing we did was
42:17make it very inexpensive so dietary
42:19supplements don't cost very much and
42:21flies cost almost nothing and so the
42:23cost for for each participant once
42:26they have the lab setup is only $15 a kid.
42:29So so far we've been able to to do that.
42:33The primary driver of the revenue
42:34right now and the fund raising is that
42:37universities are sponsoring these programs.
42:39Everybody sort of wants well trained,
42:43underrepresented students to come to
42:44their school and so they are paying
42:47for us to run the programs for them.
42:49Which is,
42:49I mean,
42:50how could it get better right as
42:52a partnership like like we help
42:53you get your students ready and
42:55and you can get the funding.
42:56So so that's how it's been so far.
42:59But yeah, funding is always, you know.
43:02And then the so most of those
43:04Western blots being done in the
43:06echoes lab, and I presume that's
43:07a physical lab inside Fox Chase.
43:09No. So the western blots are done
43:11by the students who stay in the
43:13summer for the independent research.
43:14They get matched into the labs.
43:16We we have too many Westerns to
43:18do for that to remain feasible,
43:20and so last summer we developed a dot
43:22blot protocol which I should have put in.
43:25They were a little ugly and they
43:26weren't related to the projects I was
43:28talking about like, but but it works.
43:30So so you can do Erk,
43:32Erk dot blots that give you the same
43:34answer that you get on a Western and
43:36you can do them just by pipetting onto
43:38a membrane in a high school classroom.
43:41And so, so that's what we're sort of doing,
43:43is trying to figure out how to kind of.
43:45Actually, we could call it kicking
43:47at old school, like how?
43:48How do we do things before we
43:50could do all these fancy things?
43:51And then we're bringing those back with
43:53the idea that the professional labs
43:55will then confirm confirm the results.
44:00Barb, Yep.
44:02So a lot of amazing work and
44:06to touch so many lives it's
44:09it's just very inspirational.
44:12It's sort of like the the
44:13why question, but if you could take
44:15us back to when you started this.
44:19How did you get the Philadelphia Public
44:21Schools to let you in?
44:23And were there particular
44:25challenges in the beginning that?
44:27That if you knew now what you if you knew,
44:31then what you knew now,
44:32you would have structured a little
44:35differently in the beginning.
44:35Or how did it? How did it get
44:37off the ground to the scale?
44:39Yeah, so it it did end, right?
44:41We we started with 15 students.
44:43Our initial intention was eight because
44:45one of the reasons I went to Fox Chase was
44:47because they had a high school program.
44:49I participated in a program called
44:51Project Success when I was a grad student
44:53at Harvard and and Ben Neal's lab.
44:55And my student was.
44:58So extraordinarily smart and
45:00so extraordinarily unprepared.
45:02And so we spent the whole summer
45:04doing a lot of stuff.
45:05It it just became very clear that if
45:07a student like her instead of getting
45:09dropped into a lab like Ben's lab had
45:11had a training experience ahead of time,
45:14so that she would know how to measure,
45:16like know what a gram was,
45:18that it would be much different.
45:19So I knew that that she's now a chief
45:22attending at CHOP in Philadelphia.
45:25So extraordinary success.
45:26And and I know her and she has
45:29two little kids and it's amazing,
45:31but but it transformed me a lot more
45:33than it did hurt like like this is
45:35something where I can put this tiny
45:37little bit of effort into this and it
45:39can change somebody's whole family's life.
45:41So I knew that if I ever got a faculty job,
45:43I would want to create a
45:45training program ahead of time.
45:46So our first year we we trained 15 students.
45:49Most of them were not actually
45:52underrepresented from Philadelphia.
45:53It took us a couple years to figure out
45:55that Philly students weren't applying
45:56because they didn't think they could compete.
45:58With suburban kids,
45:59so we created a Philadelphia only section,
46:02and since then it's just been exploding.
46:04And then it's actually Dara who
46:06got into the Philly school system
46:08by her connections with teachers.
46:09So she was a teacher in the
46:12Philadelphia school system before she
46:13was a Community College professor.
46:15And so she just used those connections
46:17and we started getting in.
46:18We're not actually throughout
46:20the Philadelphia school system,
46:21yet we still partner with individual
46:24teachers,
46:24the inner City Schools are so
46:26oppressive to try to get into,
46:29and they don't have any money.
46:30To pay for STEM so.
46:32So we've just accepted that that's
46:34our responsibility,
46:35and yeah,
46:35so now people at you close are
46:38writing these grants to to to make
46:41sure that our Philly students
46:42are our highest priority.
46:45Atlanta can tell us a little more
46:46about E close. How big is it?
46:49How many people work there?
46:50How do they relate to Fox Chase?
46:53So you close is separate from Fox Chase.
46:56It's a separate nonprofit foxchase.
46:59Like I said is pretty small and so to run
47:01a nationwide program with 10s of thousands
47:04of students a year is not something
47:07that's that's within that capacity.
47:09So so we created it as a separate
47:12nonprofit almost our third
47:13year anniversary is coming up.
47:15We have 21 employees,
47:18all of them are part time.
47:21Third of them are instructors.
47:23A third of them are scientific
47:24technicians who build the kits and and
47:26and set up some of the experiments
47:29depending on what the program is,
47:31and then the the rest are.
47:34You know, I'm a volunteer,
47:35so I just said total volunteer.
47:39Yeah, so it's, uh, we're in 14 U.S.
47:42states now we have 11 university sponsors,
47:46including seven comprehensive cancer centers,
47:49the American Cancer Society
47:51sponsoring that huge program,
47:52and we have programs ranging all
47:54the way from 5th grade through
47:56through adults interested in
47:58transitioning into biomedical careers.
48:00So it's a it's a very rapidly,
48:03rapidly growing thing,
48:05and I think the COVID pandemic when
48:08nobody could actually do any science.
48:11With you know all of a sudden they're like,
48:13wait.
48:13I heard about these people
48:15who started this thing,
48:16so I'm in the equals lab now.
48:18It's 500 square feet and it's you know,
48:21we'll we'll grow as we grow.
48:25There's a question from the
48:26audience from Doctor Rose,
48:28so are these other resources to help
48:30these young people get into college,
48:32pay for college, and do you
48:34find these issues are barriers?
48:37So we don't have those resources.
48:39Uhm, like I said, we don't actually
48:41even have full time employees yet
48:44that that's that's something that.
48:48Yeah, I'm not.
48:49I'm not sure that we will get there
48:51because most of our students end
48:52up getting full ride scholarships,
48:54so our biggest sending schools at this
48:56point are University of Pennsylvania,
48:58which has hosted 32 of our senior
49:01level students and I don't think
49:04any of them has paid and our second
49:06biggest sendings will now is MIT.
49:09We also have a lot of students at
49:12Pitt and Drexel and Temple and I
49:14don't think any single one of our
49:16students who've gone to Temple has
49:18not been assigned scholar, which is.
49:20For four year scholarship with
49:22room and board,
49:23the whole the whole 9 yards.
49:25And so I think the unusual nature
49:29of having this kind of research
49:31experience a personal statement
49:34that's talking about how discussing
49:36your personal why the person that
49:38you did this for and how you are
49:41going to bring together all of the
49:43interest that you gained from this
49:45program into creating a project is
49:47going to be transformative is pretty.
49:49It's pretty well received by.
49:51By colleges and universities.
49:53So far so so that may be something where
49:56there's another nonprofit that's doing that,
49:58like providing scholarships and
49:59things we would love to partner.
50:01Like I said, it closes a hub.
50:03We want to kind of drop down the barriers
50:05of competition so we don't really.
50:08You know,
50:08I've had a lot of people in fly land say,
50:11oh,
50:11we'll just replicate your program
50:12like that's great,
50:13but now we're your date is
50:14gonna be over there.
50:15Our date is what's the point like
50:17why don't we do this together so so
50:19that's one of the main things we're
50:21working on this year is how to.
50:23Collect the data so that if somebody does
50:25replicate the program just on their own,
50:28how is it that they can contribute to
50:30the database so that all of us can,
50:32you know,
50:32use this kind of screening data
50:34for for advancement of science.
50:37And one of the
50:37things that struck me in your talk
50:39was that you said multiple times
50:41the students decided to do this,
50:43that or the other the student
50:45was interested in this question.
50:47So essentially none of us gets
50:49to really choose what we decide
50:51to do in science all the time.
50:54You have to have funding.
50:55It has to be practical and feasible
50:57and so on. So when a student.
51:02Their shows interest in something.
51:03How do you channel them to a lab that
51:06might actually have the expertise?
51:08See that you don't have endless
51:10labs approx chase
51:11right? So this this is our that that's
51:13like our newest newest thing. So the 1st.
51:17Four years, maybe five years of the
51:20program was really just my thing.
51:22Like let's do EGM perceptor because you know,
51:24we had to figure out how to do it all.
51:27Does the data even mean
51:28anything like thank heavens,
51:29the people counting is really,
51:30really really significant and important.
51:33So, so we spent those five
51:34years just doing my thing.
51:36So in 2017 we started getting
51:37kids bringing in bags of like my
51:40mom's eating this and then that's
51:42when that started to change.
51:43And so it's really only in the past
51:46two years where we're trying to.
51:48Bring together Foxchase faculty who
51:50do specific things so we have behaved
51:54social behavioral researcher Carolyn Fang,
51:56who's extremely interested
51:58in medical mistrust.
51:59Who was more than happy to
52:01host Nicole in doing this?
52:02This project that she's doing and
52:04then together we got this small
52:06foundation grant for five more
52:07students to continue that work.
52:09So Caroline, will,
52:11you know,
52:12support them and developing
52:14educational interventions specifically
52:15designed for the communities of
52:18the participating five members?
52:19Of that of that research group,
52:21and then Jeff just happened to
52:23work on Ferroptosis and we landed
52:25on iron and acetaminophen, right?
52:27So so so far, it's like coming together.
52:29Last summer we had seven students.
52:31Everyone from a different cultural
52:33background who all were interested
52:35in BRCA driven breast cancer.
52:37All of them had a family member.
52:39We have another group that's
52:41interested in beta thalassemia,
52:43so a number of different again cultural
52:46groups that were interested in that.
52:48And so right.
52:49This is why.
52:50By the concept of eclose is going to
52:52become more and more and more important,
52:54especially with university sponsors,
52:55because where am I gonna send the
52:58kids I I'm already way overwhelmed.
53:00Like Oh my gosh,
53:01I can't think about all of these
53:03projects all at the same time,
53:05and so that's what we sort of need.
53:07And so we're kind of thinking about
53:10creating like a fast pitch competition.
53:13That's a video based thing
53:14where every student would like
53:16hold up their phone and go.
53:17Oh,
53:17and this is the project
53:19I'm really excited about.
53:19And then the scientists
53:21would just go through.
53:22You know no more than 30 seconds to a
53:24minute pitch and say that student is
53:26interested in what I'm interested in.
53:28So do you see what I mean?
53:29Like we're hoping to kind of like
53:31change it so that the students
53:33actually can go into a lab.
53:35That celebrates their interests.
53:36We also I forgot to say we have a
53:39partnership with Penn Medicine that
53:40takes a number of our students each
53:42year and they have they're much bigger,
53:44so they they have more capacity.
53:49Wow, that's an amazing undertaking.
53:51The whole thing. But what percent
53:52of your time do you spend on this?
53:54Just one last question. Unless Barbara
53:56I'm officially allowed to spend one
53:57day a week, that's what I spent.
54:00OK, we won porcian that yeah.
54:04Burp. Any closing coming up?
54:07You know I, I just want to say
54:11again that the the creativity and
54:13the the way you've leveraged what
54:16started out as small experiences to.
54:18To extend to so many people
54:20and and also you know.
54:22So I know that at Yale,
54:24over 50% of our first generation
54:28and underrepresented undergraduates
54:30when they show up as first years.
54:33Say that they want a major in
54:35STEM and the attrition is,
54:37as you said,
54:38over 70% of of them don't end
54:40up graduating in a stem.
54:44Programs or major.
54:45So the you know the fact that
54:47you are seeing 100% retention in
54:49STEM and that your medical school
54:52PhD balance because you know,
54:54we're also aware that minority communities
54:57are more familiar with the physician
55:00as a role model than the scientist.
55:02I think those just they they said
55:04a very high bar for everybody
55:06else who works in this space.
55:07It's amazing.
55:08Well yeah, I mean we,
55:09you know we could just help you like that.
55:11That's one of the things
55:12that we I actually met.
55:14Tony Koloski at this huge professors
55:17competition that we were both finalists
55:19there and the goal behind that was
55:22to create undergraduate a first year
55:26undergraduate semester of doing this.
55:28Like doing the program that we
55:30designed and so that students
55:31wouldn't go into that weed out class.
55:33Because every school has a weed out
55:36class which I cannot comprehend
55:38right at Temple at Temple,
55:40which was the partner they
55:41say we give them chemistry.
55:43We failed.
55:4470% of the students and this is
55:46like a we did a good job.
55:47We failed 70% out and so why would
55:49you recruit students who are already
55:51vulnerable not based on their own fault,
55:54but because of the challenges of an
55:56inner city public education and then
55:58fail them out like that's basically.
56:00You know it's it's so unfair
56:02it's basically taking any little
56:04tiny step on the rug that you
56:05had and yanking it right out.
56:07So,
56:07so that's what we would be dreaming
56:10of having in the future is to be
56:12able to work with each and every
56:14school to say what's the most
56:16important research that you're doing?
56:18How do we create interdisciplinary groups to,
56:21you know,
56:22have a student who's interested in
56:23public health together with a student
56:25who's interested in chemistry biology.
56:27Do you see what I mean to to basically
56:29create those kind of program project
56:32groups from students as their
56:34very first research experience?
56:36That's what we really want to do.
56:39It's amazing,
56:40thank you so much. That was amazing.
56:43Incredibly inspiring. Thanks for
56:44taking the time to talk to us today.
56:47Thanks, thanks everybody.
56:49If you have questions,
56:51you can find me. Alana Fox Chase.
56:54OK.