What an event!

Attending the Howard Hughes Holiday Lectures was an amazing experience.  Held at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the lectures were organized, informative, and entertaining.  Both Bassler and Olivera discussed breakthrough topics that I'm sure we'll be hearing more and more about in the coming years.

Olivera's Lecture
In his two lectures, Olivera discussed how snail venoms (yes, snails do have venom) can be used for new medicines in the future.  Olivera spoke on how a former student of his, Michael McIntosh, looked specifically into Cone Snail venom, a fluid that is injected into prey and contains toxins.  Used for defense, competition, and prey capture, the venoms cause paralysis and pain in victims.
Olivera's main point was that the venoms of these cone snails can be used in the search for new medicines.  First, using techniques like UV light absorption and chromatography, a component of the venom is identified.  The  component of snail venom identified by McIntosh was what is called Alpha-conotoxin which is made of 13 amino acid peptides.  Tested in mice, to avoid the brain-blood barrier the venom was injected directly into the central nervous system.  What was found was that each peptide illicited a different response.  Where as one would cause the mouse to drag its back legs, another would cause the mouse to move in a circular motion and another would cause convulsions.  What was found was that Prialt, as it would come to be called in drug form,(stands for PRImary ALTernative to morphine) affects the synapse targetting muscles.  After a electrical signal arrives at a synapse, calcium channels open allowing ions to enter.  What Prialt does is block the channels which would prevent the signal from being sent to the muscle.  This is a drug that can help patients who suffer from conditions that cause severe pain.  While a tolerance can be built against morphine, that is not the case with Prialt.  Olivera argued that with over 700 species of Cone Snails, with 200 (none overlapping) peptides each, there are 140,000 possibilities for new drugs like Prialt.  Prialt is just the beginning.

Bonnie Bassler
Bassler gave two lectures on bacteria communication.  All organisms can be put into three domains: archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes.  Bacteria, however, account for most of the total organisms on Earth.  While most bacteria are good and perform functions humans just don't have the genes for, some is bad and harming our body systems.  Bassler looked into one bacterial species and its host: The bobtail squid and vibrio fischeri.  To avoid being spotted, the bacteria practices bioluminescence in the squid.  The bobtail squid feeds the bacteria, and the bacteria illuminates, matching the light entering the water from above so there is no shadow and can swim by undetected by predators. However, when there bacteria are in low density, there is no bioluminescence but when in high density, there is bioluminescence.  The question remains: How do these bacteria talk to one another? Bassler looked into a type of communication called quorum sensing where bacteria find out when they are in groups so they can carry out activities.  Quorom sensing is not only able to activate bioluminescence but iron acquisition and DNA exchange.  Bassler expanded on how bacteria tend to ask two questions when inside of a host: 1. "Am I alone?" and 2. "Are those that surround me like me or different?" Since bacteria are able to build a resistance against antibiotics, Bassler noted that something must be made to completely stop the communication.  There are many different ways to do this and one is by blocking the receptor to make bacteria think it is  alone when it isn't.  The new drugs that can be made for this can be done a number of ways.  One is by rational design which is making a counter to the structure.  Or, since this is easier said than done, having scientist donate molecules to a library and out of the library, isolating those with compatible shapes.  Never did I realize just how far there is to go in medicine and how we are only at the front door of this extremely long hall.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the lectures.  The speakers presented the information in ways that made it easy to follow and in each break, welcomed questions to assist with our understanding.  I find that this is the way science ought to be presented - with a sort of "let's go after this together"attitude. Research is not about sitting in a room all day waiting for a giant breakthrough that may not come (as I originally thought).  Instead, scientific research is the search for small discoveries that improve the knowledge that we have.  As I am a visual learner, the animations helped with my understanding of the topics. I found that the information presented in these lectures works well with what I am learning in my Biology IB HL class.  Many of the objectives of the appropriate sections were addressed in some way throughout the presentations.  Many students may find find this to be true for the AP curriculum as well.  I think the materials that Howard Hughes offers may be helpful to a variety of biology classrooms in many locations from DC to Louisiana to other states across the nation.