2017
Bridges
My Research & Thoughts of my project: Lynelle, Did you know that prostate cancer is the second leading cancer in men and that the mortality rate is higher in the Native American population compared to other ethnicities? This means that a Native American who is diagnosed with prostate cancer tends to have an aggressive form of this cancer compared to other ethnicities. The research group in Jason Wilder’s genetics laboratory focuses on the discovery and analysis of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and their relation to prostate cancer. Acknowledging the many disparities that could potentially affect the Native American susceptibility to prostate cancer, we will focus on the genetic aspect of it. With the help of the human haplotype map created by the “HapMap Project,” finding a common or rare genetic variants that associate with a complex disease is achievable. However, the Native American population is the most unrepresented population. Therefore, my research project is to better understand the role of genetics as a risk factor for prostate cancer in the Native American population by focusing on the genetic variation of the oncomir microRNA-27(mir-27) between ethnic groups. Genetic variation of miR-27 has not been examined previously in Native American populations. A microRNA is a short non-coding RNA that can prevent certain messenger RNA from coding a specific protein causing functional and physiological disruptions. This summer, I will continue my previous research project focusing on two different SNPs that I discovered within the region of mir-27 in 39 Native American samples. A SNP is a variation at a single position in a genome and once a SNP occurs within a gene, the gene is identified as having more than one allele. SNPs have been known to be associated with certain diseases and cancer. mir-27 is associated with various types of cancer making it an oncomir. The two SNPs that I discovered are, rs895819 and rs764547746. The first SNP, rs895819 is a common SNP that affects the mir-27 processing and function; this increases the risk of prostate cancer in Native American population. The second SNP, rs764547746 is novel which means that it has not been discovered in the human genome. This summer my project will focus on cloning these two SNPs using E. coli cells and analyzing the cloned sequences using bioinformatic methods. I began my cloning experiment on June 20th (Tuesday) and completed it on June 22nd (Thursday). This Monday I sent my cloned plasmids to The University of Arizona Genetic core in Tucson for sequencing. Looking back to the beginning of my cloning experiment I was amazed to have grown just enough E. coli colonies on my Luria-Bertani Kanamycin plates to proceed onward with the procedures. I was informed that it was most likely that there would be no growth on the first try, so repeating the cloning procedure would be necessary. However, I got enough colonies to continue with the rest of the procedures. On Wednesday, is when I received my sequences from U of A and it wasn’t until today that I am now analyzing my data using a computer software called Sequencher. So, far I have been unable to assemble my forward and reverse primers/ individuals which means that I can’t confirm if my SNPs are cloned. This has happened because I platted the wrong primers before I sent my product to U of A. Therefore, I would have to re-plate my product with the correct primers and send it off next week. Overall, I should be able to analyze my sequences next week and hopefully find cloned SNPs in all my colonies. My fear for my project is that if there is no SNPs showing up when I analyze my sequence, then I would have to re-clone from the beginning which could be time consuming. However, I hope for the best outcome of finding the SNPs. Either way, this is a great learning experience and practice. Again, the discovery of the population-specific miR-27 polymorphisms may elucidate the disparity in prostate cancer mortality within Native Americans. -Joshelle How I am taking care of myself & how my week has been:Hello Everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your week and you are now ready for the weekend. I know I am (tehe, that sounds so cheesy!). These past two weeks has been all about cloning the two SNPs that I discovered last summer by using E. coli cells and analyzing the cloned sequences using bioinformatic tools. Aside from lab work, setting time for myself allows me to not burn out by the end of the week. With that said, my time outside of the lab are mainly spent at the gym or at my apartment. Throughout the week Lynelle and I would go to the gym at the Health and Learning Center at 5:30pm. Most of the time we aim to work out for about 1-2 hours. During this time, we would talk to each other about our day, how our research is going, and other things like what friends would talk about. At my apartment, I have the place to myself for the summer since my roommate is back in Page, AZ. There’s not that much that I do besides relax and watch some movies on Netflix. For the weekends, I would go home every other week. Last weekend, I went to a family reunion with my mom and younger siblings at Cactus Valley; located on top of Black Mesa. All the families that were gathered are all descendants of the Yeii Dine’e Tachiinnii family from Cactus Valley and most of them I have never met. It was interesting to meet my distant relatives on my mother’s side of the family. At the event, they also had games and races which I participated in. I ran the one mile race with my younger siblings which was fun but my throat burned throughout the race. I bet it was from the heat. Despite the heat, in the end I placed second in the female category and was given a medal which was awesome. The next day my family and I visited my younger sister at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. Where she is attending school through the Upward Bound program that I once did when I was a high school student. We ate together and she was telling us her funny stories of her time there. Out of our family, I would say she is the funny one. She is always making jokes and making others laugh. Overall, setting time for yourself is beneficial. Also spending time with your family and friends is nice too! Speaking about friends, I’m always down to hang out with my roommate/bestie (Kaylee B.) when she makes her surprised visits into town. We usually would eat out, buy Dutch Bros coffee, watch movies, and drive around town. Anyway, hope you all enjoy your weekend and happy 4th of July!
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Hello, my name is Joshelle Tsinnijinnie. I am a member of the Navajo Nation, from Inscription House, Arizona. Shí eí Kinłichíi’nii nishłį́, dóó Táchii’nii báshíshchiin. Bit’ahnii dashíchei dóó Tábąąhá eí dashínáłí. I am of the Red House people clan, born for the Red-Running-Into-Water clan. The Folded Arms people are my maternal grandfather’s clan and the Edge Water people are my paternal grandfather’s clan. I am a returning member of the Northern Arizona University Bridges Program. I first joined this program last summer and had such an amazing experience working in Dr. Jason Wilder’s lab that I decided to participate again.
I am a student at Coconino Community College (CCC), here in Flagstaff, AZ and I am a part of the CCC2NAU program. I have one more year at CCC before I transfer to Northern Arizona University where I plan to major in biomedical science. Initially, I was interested in pursuing a career in nursing. However, the more time I spent on conducting health research, I developed an interest working with the experimental aspect of the health field. Therefore, majoring in biomedical science will allow me to learn more about experimenting within the health field. As a career, I want to become a medical doctor and maybe even conduct health research too. I am a Page High School alumni since 2015. I am the second oldest out of five siblings. I enjoy hiking, baking, watching movies, and occasionally I like to read fiction novels. My first time writing a blog using Weebly was quite difficult; especially having to navigate through so many tool options. Now as I return back to my old website, refreshing my memory of how to navigate through the editing site has been helpful. It’s also nice to review my blog entries from last summer. It brings back many memories of my time spent in Flagstaff, places I visited, working in the lab, and the goals I wanted to accomplish. It has also amazed me how my initial career plans has changed because of my participation with the Bridges program. As for my research, I will be continuing my research from last summer of “Identifying miR-27 Polymorphisms in Native Americans” Specifically, I will clone the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that I found by using bacteria. I don’t fully know the details of how I will be conducting the experiment, but what I do know is that it will consist of a time frame of 3 days. Within in those 3 days, it mainly consist of allowing the bacteria to grow within an incubator for a specific amount of time. So far, I have ran a reaction of the 2 individuals that appeared to have a SNP. I also placed them into a thermal cycler and ran a gel to see if they had the amount of base pair that I was expecting. Once that was done, I made broth that was for my agar plates and for my broth medium. Overall, I am excited to continue my research project and to hopefully get some interesting results. |
AuthorHello! Feel free to read over my 2016 summer's blogs too. Archives
August 2017
End of the Summer Video |