Thanks to David Block ’81, students studying biological science at Wesleyan will be afforded rare and exciting research opportunities. Formerly the chief operating officer for Celera Genomics, the private company that sequenced the human genome, Block urged the company to donated one of its approximately 300 gene sequencing machines to Wesleyan when the company upgraded to newer models. Wesleyan is one of only three universities to receive sequencers.
Block, whose Wesleyan major was in the self-created subject, biopsychology, recently decided to start his own biotechnology company. After Wesleyan, Block attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. While there, he became interested in the business side of medicine and simultaneously attended the Wharton School of Business, from which he graduated first in his class. Block thought the donation would be particularly useful here.
“[Wesleyan] has had a history of having great scientists,” Block said. “It’s not what people think of when they think of Wesleyan, but the sciences are incredibly strong.”
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Robert Lane estimated that the science departments at Wesleyan have about twice the output, both in terms of publications and grants, of the closest of our its peer institutions.
“The gift Celera has given allows us to continue a tradition of being much bigger than we really are,” Lane said.
Undergraduate students have already started to use the sequencer for their own research. Seth Katz ’04 and Katherine Hall ’05 both recently started projects that include the use of the machine. Katz is studying how modifications to the regulatory sequences of genes—the regions of genes that control when a gene is turned on and how much of a specific protein it will produce—influence gene expression. Hall’s project consists of examining the olfactory system of salmon by sequencing receptors in order to better understand how salmon are able to return to their freshwater breeding grounds.
“There are literally hundreds of different questions that could be asked in laboratories here at Wesleyan that could take advantage of this technology,” Lane said.
Due to the nature of the Human Genome Project, which only sequenced the genomes of certain species such as fruit flies and mice, many opportunities remain to sequence other species. According to Lane, though genes from one species tend to be remarkably similar to the next, the way that they are expressed is what produces the visible differences between a mouse and a flower, for example.
“There are research and classroom opportunities to ask questions that would involve sequencing some of these intermediate states and learning something about evolution or even [gene] function because those are the two bits of information that you can harvest from a sequence analysis,” Lane said. “We can also learn something about the function of a gene and then something about the evolution of a genome, both of which are interesting for different reasons.”
The sequencer works by producing gene segments of different lengths that are fluorescently marked so that scientists can determine which nucleotide—the building block of genes—is at the end of each fragment. From this information, scientists can infer the nucleotide sequence of the gene.
The new machine will add to a department that already has several pieces of expensive and elite technology such as a nuclear magnetic residence, a device used to visualize protein structure, and confocal microscopy technology, a microscope that uses light to visualize three-dimensional structures on slides.
Despite the impressive track record of the sciences here, Lane said the departments receive little attention, a situation that he hopes will soon change.
“I think that this is an extremely important time for everyone to be well informed about science, especially biological life sciences, because life sciences are in the political arena right now with cloning and biotech and issues of patenting genetic information and possibilities for gene targeting and gene therapy,” he said. “This is a very, very important time for life sciences, maybe in the way that physics was around the 20s or chemistry in the sixties or computer science in the last 20 years. It fundamentally changed the way we are and the way we view ourselves and the way we function in society.”
Lane added that he would like to see more of the Wesleyan community involved in the sciences.
Many students agree. Miriam Jacobs ’05, with the help of Risa Dubin ’06, proposed the creation of a science program house called Delta G, after a science equation that determines the amount of free energy present. The idea stemmed from conversations Jacobs had last year with a friend about the dearth of science programs available for interested students, in comparison with the large number of humanities and arts opportunities on campus.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of students who think it’s a good idea,” Jacobs said.
If created, Jacobs plans to host events such as Mole Day on Oct. 23 and Mad Scientist themed parties.
As the newest supplement to the science department, Jacobs said she hopes the gene sequencer will raise the level of student interest that the sciences at Wesleyan deserve.
“They’re intense,” she said. “You definitely have a lot of opportunities. You can do research as an undergraduate and even as a freshman. [The donation of the gene sequencer] is exciting. I’d like to sequence my own genome of maybe a mongoose!”
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