Friedreich’s Ataxia: Thoughts from Inside the Research Lab
Hello! My name is Layne Rodden. I am a 3rd year neuroscience PhD student at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. I work in the lab of Dr. Sanjay Bidichandani, and we focus on improving our understanding of the molecular causes of Friedreich's Ataxia so that new drug targets and therapies can be developed. We know that an expanded GAA repeat in the FXN gene results in significant reduction in frataxin protein and causes FA, but how is the GAA repeat doing this? And how can we reverse it? I would like to use this platform to give insight into the research side of FA from a graduate student’s perspective and share how being involved with the FA community these past 3 years has personally influenced my life.
Apart from classroom work, the other component of a PhD degree is the project that is worked on for about 5 years in a research lab. A typical working day in lab can involve: designing experiments, maintaining ongoing experiments, ordering supplies, lab meetings to discuss results with other lab members, troubleshooting results, writing papers, making presentation or posters for conferences, and teaching/mentoring visiting high school or medical students. We constantly have several ongoing projects in our lab, and mostly work with FA blood cells or skin cells. The cells live in specialized plastic containers in incubators in our lab, and we manipulate them in several ways depending on what question we are asking. For example, we may treat the cells with a particular drug or small molecule to determine if frataxin levels are increasing. We may inhibit a particular cellular process to see if that pathway is important to FA. Science research is like detective work. We do not know what is going on inside of cells, but we can use high tech equipment and chemicals to give us clues and guide us closer to an overall answer. We ask ourselves a series of simple questions whose cumulative answers eventually lead us to breakthroughs. Moreover, research can be emotion provoking. We are ecstatic about new or unexpected discoveries, and we get frustrated or confused when experiments do not turn out or technical difficulties arise. We know it is important however, to stay focused on the end goal of the experiment, the project, or overall goal of the lab by balancing our emotional reactions with logic and rational insight. Lastly, science is a team sport. One of my favorite aspects of research is discussing my data with others at conferences. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to see experimental results in a different way, which can lead to questions that I may not have thought of on my own.
When I chose to do my thesis project in Dr. Bidichandani’s lab, I knew I would be immersed in genetics, neuroscience, and all kinds of advanced lab techniques. What I would later come to learn however, is that I would also be very kindly accepted into the Friedreich's Ataxia community where I have learned exceedingly valuable things outside of the science of PhD work. I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to meet a lot of members of the FA community at conferences, community events, or during tours of our lab. Resilience, tenacity, passion, and ambition are just a few character traits that members of the FA community fiercely exhibit. It is remarkable to watch all of you use your talents and voices to unite and teach your communities about FA. I continually use your YouTube videos, your websites, your blog posts, and your community events to teach my family and community about FA. Public understanding of science is a big passion of mine, and you all are so reverently finding opportunities with your diagnoses to learn and educate and advocate in ways that are incredibly inspiring to me. It is invigorating to be welcomed into such a powerful community and movement, and I am grateful to be a part of the mission to find effective treatments and a cure for FA.
