Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Northeastern University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I study the medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as Madagascar Periwinkle. C. roseus is the only plant in the world that makes the important anti-cancer compounds, vinblastine and vincristine, which are currently used to successfully treat lymphoma. I am interested in understanding what transcription factor proteins are involved in activating or repressing the biosynthesis of vinblastine. If we can identify transcription factors, we might be able to genetically engineer plants that produce more vinblastine, bringing down the cost of this life-saving drug.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I love feeling like I am an explorer at the edge of knowledge. When you are a scientist, you get to ask questions that nobody knows the answer to. After a lot of hard work, you can find an answer, and it is like you have a secret about life that nobody else knows, which you then get to share with others. I also love reading and hearing about what other people are discovering.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is tough about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  Science is very slow and involves a lot of failure. You may get excited about answering a certain question, but it may take months or years before you are able to answer it, which can be very frustrating.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  Catharanthus roseus! It makes an extraordinarily complex molecule that is deadly for insects and cancer cells, and it is also a very pretty plant that you can find in many gardens.

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Genetic Plant Growing Project Lauren F Cole Apr 18, 2021

Hi Eagle Team,

Thanks for sharing your final results and conclusions. Great job analyzing your results – I like the observations that larger sample sizes would be helpful to see the expected ratio and also that the environment might have…

more

Hi Eagle Team,

Thanks for sharing your final results and conclusions. Great job analyzing your results – I like the observations that larger sample sizes would be helpful to see the expected ratio and also that the environment might have played a role in the traits being expressed or not. These are both good explanations.

Nice work!

Lauren

Genetic plant growing project Team Alligator Lauren F Cole Apr 18, 2021

Hi Alligator Team,

Thanks for sharing your final results and conclusions and thanks for all of your hard work on this project growing the plants and collecting data.

I thought it was a great observation that you noted that the plants started…

more

Hi Alligator Team,

Thanks for sharing your final results and conclusions and thanks for all of your hard work on this project growing the plants and collecting data.

I thought it was a great observation that you noted that the plants started out dark green and turned light green. Although plants and people have different genes (alleles) encoded in their DNA, these genes still need to be expressed in order to create the phenotype you can see. You can think of DNA like instructions, but it needs to be read and carried out in order to have an effect on an organism. This expression is regulated by the environment, which is why your plants might not have turned light green until they had time to express those alleles. This is why we are a product both of our genes and our environment.

Good luck with the rest of your school year!

Lauren

Genetic Plant Growing Project Lauren F Cole Apr 18, 2021

Hi Lion Team,

Awesome job analyzing this project even though the results were somewhat confusing! Trevor emphasized that the Punnett square only shows a possible outcome, and this is right, random chance could have contributed to the abundance of…

more

Hi Lion Team,

Awesome job analyzing this project even though the results were somewhat confusing! Trevor emphasized that the Punnett square only shows a possible outcome, and this is right, random chance could have contributed to the abundance of non-purple plants in your experiment. Usually as you increase the number of your replicates, i.e. grow more plants, random chance will smooth out and you should see the expected ratio (which is why the school-wide data was probably closer to the expected ratio), but with a small number of plants, randomness will be a stronger factor.

However, there is another possible explanation for what you observed. Genes encoded in DNA are like instructions for organisms, but they still need to be read and carried out (expressed). It may be that you had the expected ratio of purple to non-purple plants, but the plants weren’t in the right environment to express the purple gene. Joe pointed out that he saw the leaves and stem change color with changing temperature. This is a great observation, and would be a good basis for a follow-up experiment to see if changing the temperature of your plants increases the amount of purple or light green plants observed.

Good luck with the rest of the school year!

Lauren