{"id":4487,"date":"2018-06-19T11:18:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T16:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/for-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=4487"},"modified":"2019-03-29T13:50:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T18:50:42","slug":"cancer-research-project-provides-uw-superior-students-with-hands-on-experience","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/cancer-research-project-provides-uw-superior-students-with-hands-on-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer research project provides UW-Superior students with hands-on experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
UW-Superior assistant professor Dr. Jenean O\u2019Brien, center, is hopeful that her research will aid in better understanding muscle and immune development to provide insight into rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a devastating pediatric muscle cancer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Research involving zebrafish at UW-Superior could play a role in learning more about a pediatric cancer<\/p>\n

Fluorescent light illuminates rows of tanks organized neatly on three shelves. Small black and white fish circle about. As recirculating water bubbles, it\u2019s a scene reminiscent of any pet store.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University of Wisconsin-Superior assistant professor\u00a0Dr. Jenean O\u2019Brien<\/a>\u00a0has an interest in these tropical fish that goes beyond any entertainment or stress-relieving factor they may have. She\u2019s hoping these 1- to 2-inch black-striped fish could play a role in learning more about a pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy research involves using zebrafish,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cThey are used a lot for developmental biology. When they lay their eggs, the eggs are transparent. Developmental biologists are watching how the embryo develops into the adult. If we can see through the tissues, that\u2019s a really useful tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien is hopeful that her research will be able to better understand muscle and immune development to provide insight into rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a devastating pediatric muscle cancer with less than 30-percent five-year survival rates. Patients with RMS are primarily treated with chemotherapy and radiation, not specific molecularly-targeted therapies. More than 50-percent of childhood cancer survivors experience severe, disabling, life-threatening or fatal events often stemming from non-targeted treatments. The research being performed at UW-Superior could help improve treatment options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re interested in is looking at the DNA and seeing what genes get turned on and off in normal development and seeing if that\u2019s similar to the genes that get turned on and off in tumor development,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201dRMS is relatively easy to model in zebrafish, so that\u2019s why we\u2019re looking at this particular type of cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the aid of the zebrafish, O\u2019Brien is examining two separate different settings \u2013 one is developmental and the other is cancer.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Dr. O’Brien (left) and a UW-Superior student researcher stand in front of zebrafish samples they are using to understand muscle and immune development.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cCancer, the development of tumors, often utilizes programs that our cells use during normal development,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cThe cancer cells kind of takeover that machinery and use it for tumor-building purposes. If you can study what is normally happening in development in our cells and our bodies, it can help get insight for what tumors might be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancer research has been a consistent theme in her work. O\u2019Brien earned her Ph.D., at the University of Colorado Denver. For her post-doctoral work, she trained in two separate labs \u2013 one with a developmental biologist to learn more about zebrafish and another with a breast cancer researcher to learn more about the particular genes, which O\u2019Brien is continuing to research at UW-Superior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like doing cancer research because it feels like it\u2019s that much closer to the patients,\u201d she said. \u201cI like developmental biology. Sure you can be studying a developmental disease, but cancer affects so much of the population. I couldn\u2019t leave cancer research.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current research project at UW-Superior has been greatly benefited by a grant awarded to O\u2019Brien from the National Institutes of Health, which funds three paid summer internship experiences for students and allows O\u2019Brien the time in her teaching schedule to monitor more students performing research projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping to have this research happen no matter what,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cIt\u2019s just now, with the grant, the scope of it is much larger and the number of students that we can involve is a lot higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
UW-Superior student researchers analyze zebrafish samples.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the spring semester, O\u2019Brien has six students working with her \u2013 something that could not have happened without the grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI purposefully chose a teaching career because I want to work with students not do full time research. But research has to be part of that training of a scientist,\u201d she said. \u201cWe actually get to have these authentic research opportunities and we know that our students are really excited about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students, they are able to participate in research O\u2019Brien has been organizing since she arrived at UW-Superior in 2015. Yet the size of this project isn\u2019t something one individual can create. O\u2019Brien has had assistance that has ranged from a fellow faculty member and student working to build the zebrafish facility to support from colleagues at The College of St. Scholastica, the University of Minnesota Duluth and the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the greater research community and our campus community work together to create this opportunity for students has been pretty cool,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cYou really can\u2019t do research yourself. One person can\u2019t create a molecular biology research lab. It takes a group of people \u2013 it takes a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

News Contact: James Biros |\u00a0715-394-8260<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0jbiros@uwsuper.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research involving zebrafish at UW-Superior could play a role in learning more about a pediatric cancer Fluorescent light illuminates rows of tanks organized neatly on three shelves. Small black and white fish circle about. As recirculating water bubbles, it\u2019s a scene reminiscent of any pet store. University of Wisconsin-Superior assistant professor\u00a0Dr. Jenean O\u2019Brien\u00a0has an interest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[110],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-4487","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-superior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/4487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=4487"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=4487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}