Evidence of Learning Assessment #2

Oishika Das

Type of Assessment: Primary Learning: Sam Rhine Genetic Conference

Date of Conference: January 31, 2018

Time: 9:30 am - 1:00 pm

Analysis:
Sam Rhine, a genetics educator and speaker, stopped at Frisco ISD as part of his annual
tour in order to speak with Advanced Placement Biology students regarding the developments in
genetic technologies. I was fortunate to obtain the opportunity to listen to his lecture and was
looking forward to learning about some of the bioengineering technologies I experienced in my
mentorship last year. However, I received a positive surprise when I learned that his lecture was
heavily focused on oncology and how modern technology can eventually eliminate cancer
deaths: essentially my ISM topic of interest this year. Listening to Mr. Rhine’s informative three-
hour lecture opened my eyes to aspects of cancer I had never heard of before; this was a
tremendous learning opportunity, as I was taught of the detailed development of cancers,
possible prevention mechanisms, and the genetic basis of the world’s most lethal disease.
The first idea that Mr. Sam Rhine stressed was that cancer is not just one disease. In fact,
it is two hundred different diseases under a common name. In this way, there will never be a cure
for cancer, but rather multiple cures. This was a definite interesting approach, and Mr. Rhine’s
absolute belief that medical developments will lead to the ultimate end of cancer-related deaths
led me to anticipate the information he would unveil during his speech. One question that I
always ask any oncologist that I interview is what they think is the lead cause of cancer. Since
every physician has different patients with diverging histories, I always get varied answers such
as radiation or obesity. However, Mr. Rhine had his own answer to the question; he explained
that the greatest risk factor for cancer was, in fact, the inevitable act of aging, or rather the
endogenous mutations associated with it. The human body has an enzyme called DNA
polymerase which is crucial to the DNA replication process. Unfortunately, the enzyme always
makes a few mistakes, (about 6,000 replication errors out of 3,000,000,000 nucleotides per cell)
leading to mutations in the cell. This causes abnormal cell division in stem cells, but before
explaining tumor growth, Mr. Rhine enlightened us about the topic of stem cells mitosis.
In my oncology-based research, I constantly learned of the role of uncontrolled mitosis in
tumor growth, but I never knew that there are two different types of mitosis. It was a complete
surprise to me when Mr. Rhine uncovered the topic of asymmetrical mitosis, versus the
symmetrical mitosis we learn about at school. While symmetrical mitosis is able to divide a cell
into identical daughter cells, asymmetrical mitosis works to create a whole new cell from a
special type of cell called a stem cell. These stem cells are unbelievable as they are known to be
biologically immortal. The normal human cell contains chromosomes capped off with telomeres
which shorten with every division of the cell. When the telomeres reach the end, the cell is
unable to divide anymore, maintaining a healthy cell life cycle. However, stem cells contain a
special enzyme called telomerase, which is able to regrow the telomeres so the cell never dies.
With this, it becomes quite obvious the issue if the cell to obtain a mutation is a stem cell,
because this will result in unlimited asymmetrical mitosis and the accumulation of a tumor. Mr.
Rhine said that this “primary tumor” only leads to about 8% of all cancer deaths. The other 92%
is from metastasis: the migration of cancer that happens with this. This means that we can stop
92% of cancer deaths with early screening and detection-- another idea I want to focus on with
my original work this year.
It is common knowledge that chemotherapy is one of the most popular cancer treatment
types. It treats the excess cell growth by triggering apoptosis, cell death, to maintain cellular
equilibrium. However, I had never considered that damaging cellular DNA to start apoptosis will
not work on immortal stem cells. This means that even when a tumor appears to completely
disappear with chemotherapy treatment, the small cancer stem cells still persist and continue to
divide. With this, cancer regression and tumor regrowth occur. This means the only way to fully
target cancer is a method that will remove all harmful stem cells from the body. Luckily, last
year, Dr. Dipanjan Pan was able to develop drug-filled nanoparticles that specifically bind to
cancerous stem cells to destroy them.
With this downside of chemotherapy, oncology researchers are constantly looking for
new cancer treatment options. Mr. Rhine covered many fascinating ideas, but one that stuck out
to me the most was a topic I briefly studied last year with biomedical engineering:
immunotherapy. Immunotherapy essentially attempts to use a body’s own immune system to
fight against cancer. The attack cells of the human immune system are called “t-cells” which kill
pathogens and biological invaders. These special cells have receptors attached to them that bind
with cells to characterize them a “SELF” or “NOT-SELF”. All body cells for an individual have
SELF-identifiers on them that protect them from t-cell attacks. The problem with this is that
tumor cells are body cells as well, which means that they too have the SELF-identifiers on them,
preventing t-cells from destroying them. Nevertheless, researchers have developed a new method
called CAR-T in which they are able to genetically modify the receptors on a t-cell to attack the
cancerous b-cells (immune cells that provide antibodies) of the body. Despite being a great
success, this type of treatment has the drawback of destroying good b-cells as well. This means
patients undergoing CAR-T immunotherapy need to take antibody supplements along with the
treatment.
Although the genetic conference compressed 552 slides of meaningful information into a
four-hour period, I was never once bored of the amazing content Mr. Rhine provided today. It
was absolutely enlightening to discover the ways scientists around the world are trying to battle
cancer. The faith that Mr. Rhine has on the success of these treatments are encouraging and I
know that in the future, I want to do my part to eliminate cancer deaths.