Your Favorite Research Project
Imagen that you are driving “On a dark desert highway” like in this old song [1], and “Up ahead in the distance” you see “a shimmering light” [1]. However, as the story goes, it is not Hotel California but an UFO. And of course, with you luck, the occupants of the UFO decided that you are very interesting specimen and they need to pick you up for the ride. And here is where the story becomes interesting.
It turns out that they are unhappy with the funding agencies that will give money to study the same genetics and epigenetics problems over and over and not fund young researchers [2, 3, 4]. They have unlimited resources and they want YOU to pick any genetics, epigenetics, or molecular biology problem to study. No need to write grant proposals, no committees, no deadlines, they will cover the expenses and you will do the research.
What would you pick to study? Are you going to look for a cure for a terrible human disease? Or study basic genetics and epigenetic mechanisms? Or look for solving the global worming problem with the help of genetically modified organisms? Or create organisms that will help to eradicate the starvation and hunger in undeveloped countries? Or look for anti-COVID biologicals or innovative vaccines that will give you immunity against any possible variant? Can you give example(s) of such novel research?
Use your imagination!
1. Hotel California; Eagles; Hotel California; Eagles; https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eagles/hotelcalifornia.html
2. The greatest hits of the human genome; Elie Dolgin, Nature 551, 427-431 (2017); doi: 10.1038/d41586-017-07291-9; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07291-9
3. There are about 20,000 human genes. So why do scientists only study a small fraction of them? By Jocelyn KaiserSep. 18, 2018 , 2:00 PM; Posted in: People & EventsScientific Community; doi:10.1126/science.aav4546
4. Epigenetic Inheritance: Concepts, Mechanisms and Perspectives, Lacal I., Ventura R., (2018) Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 11; 292; DOI=10.3389/fnmol.2018.00292
here’s response or from classmate Jade Nichols
RE: Your Favorite Research Project
This is an interesting question that I never had really put too much thought into because of funding and a lot of other complicated factors with research. However, if I could study any possible thing it would have to be a cure for glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is a very aggressive brain cancer that has not even really been found to have any treatment for survival longer than months. This type of cancer is almost always fatal and the prognosis is usually very short after detection. I took cancer biology lab here at stony brook and learning about this type of cancer was increasingly more disheartening than the rest. Other cancers there are treatments that could ultimately fight the cancer however with Glioblastoma treatments only can give the patients a certain number of months. If I could do any research this is what I would choose.
Here’s response 2 Jacob Blancher
RE: Your Favorite Research Project
If I had unlimited time, resources, and funding for my research, I would try to discover something that would help the greatest number of people. I believe that finding a solution to global warming (may it be through genetically modified organisms) will have the most profound impact. Global warming is not an issue that affects a subset of the world’s human population, but rather every single human and organism alive on the planet. Additionally, it not only affects our current generation or our kids, but our progeny for years to come if the earth becomes uninhabitable as sea levels rise and extreme weather events become more severe.
Specifically, I would try to research and develop a plant that uses a large amount of CO2 relative to its size. Once this species has been developed, we would reproduce it over and over and over, until there are billions or even trillions of individual plants to be distributed across the world. Hopefully, these highly digestive carbon dioxide species would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air by converting it into sugars. Ideally, this sugars that this plants produces would be a highly nutritious and delicious starch, that could simultaneously be used to treat world hunger at the same time as global warming.
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