WIKIMEDIA COMMONS | The Georgetown University Maillard Lab and Wang Lab collaborated to investigate the nervous system via protein experiments.
A collaborative research project between Georgetown University’s Maillard Lab and Wang Lab investigates nervous system function through the lens of protein experiments.
The Wang Lab in the department of pharmacology and physiology at the Georgetown University Medical Center studies the relationship between nervous system stability and neurological diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Epilepsy affects the lifestyle of almost 3 million people in the U.S. per year, and Alzheimer’s disease causes over 100,000 deaths per year in the U.S.
Individual proteins in the brain play key roles in these systems, intersecting with the work of the Maillard Lab in Georgetown’s chemistry department, which studies properties, functions and communication mechanisms of various proteins.
Saleem Abu-Tayeh (GRD ’23), a researcher in the Wang Lab, and Nazgol Missaghi (CAS ’28), a research assistant in the Maillard Lab, collaborated on an ongoing project investigating the role that interactions between proteins play in overall neural stability.
Abu-Tayeh explained that they are trying to elucidate how different proteins affect nervous system function and homeostasis, the maintenance and regulation of neuron activity.
“We’re investigating how protein interactions affect homeostatic neuroplasticity and nervous system function,” Abu-Tayeh wrote to The Hoya.
The collaborative project between the two labs allows them to research the role of several key proteins, such as Drosophila multiplexin and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2), in the nervous system while making improvements to the research process.
Missaghi said investigating the role of these proteins in neural functions will aid in understanding the causes and processes that underlie severe neurological illnesses.
“We investigated the roles of Drosophila multiplexin and MMP2 in synaptic regulation, optimized protein protocols, and analyzed their impact on signaling pathways,“ Missaghi wrote to The Hoya. “It’s common to overlook how much a single protein can affect complex neural circuits, and our work shows just how critical these interactions are.”
Abu-Tayeh and Missaghi made several changes to the project’s protein purification process, which is crucial to isolating the samples of protein they aim to study, allowing them to retain purer samples and further their research.
Abu-Tayeh said summer research offered opportunities to overcome previous challenges in the protocol.
“Before the summer, I was struggling to purify my protein due to several reasons,” Abu-Tayeh wrote. “This summer, with the ability to collaborate with others and discuss the projects with others more, we were able to think of new ideas to overcome some of these obstacles.”
Abu-Tayeh added that collaboration was key to the project’s developments and that summer research is a crucial time period for researchers to work together in this way.
“People often assume summer research is repetitive or slows down, but it’s actually when the most collaboration happens, as lab members can dedicate more time and have the opportunity to exchange ideas across projects,” Abu-Tayeh wrote.
Student researchers across the Georgetown community look forward to the unique opportunity the summer provides to dedicate larger amounts of time and thought to their research, creating more opportunities for discovery and progress.
Anish Patel (CAS ’28) — an undergraduate research assistant at Georgetown’s Golestaneh Lab, which studies how aging affects the cells and causes age-related macular degeneration— said he looks forward to conducting summer research in the future.
“Staying over the summer will give me full time experience in the lab to really start my own research experience and see it come to fruition, rather than fitting it in with academic commitments, as I do during the school year,” Patel told the Hoya.
Missaghi said her and Abu-Tayah’s work will continue into the school year, as will their contributions to both labs’ scientific discoveries.
“This summer helped me see research as a process of exploration,” Missaghi wrote. “Missteps are just another way of uncovering how biological systems really work.”