During my graduate studies in Geneva,
I was always trying to combine molecular biology and development — it was
in the retina at that time —
and a couple of articles really
attracted my attention
that were dealing with the very difficult questions on a molecular level, exactly
in development. And then I realized by reading more
that most of them are coming from
one laboratory
and it's Geoff Rosenfeld's lab.
So this is one of the few labs in the world that combine molecular
biology and development.
So, how certain cell types develop:
how differentiation of certain cell types happens,
what factors are involved, what signaling pathways or transcription factors?
But not on a general level
but on a very molecular level — so the molecular mechanisms,
really the complexes of the proteins,
the promoters, enhancers,
interactions…Very, very complex mechanisms.
Two main fields that the Rosenfeld Lab is interested in are
cancer biology and
embryonic development.
The cancer biology
in our lab is actually
worked on in many details
from the point of the biology of
the nuclear receptors and how they are
acting during the cancer angiogenesis.
And basically
the important part that has been studied in our laboratory is how those factors
are influencing
the gene expression
and what complexes they are in and what complexes are modifying their action.
This is what the Rosenfeld Lab is actually mostly known for.
One of the projects I'm currently working on is characterizing the pituitary disease,
prolactinoma, which is very common in people
and it's quite known, but it's not very well characterized on a molecular level.
I think it is very important to know the basis of the disease
and maybe find a better way to treat it, any maybe a better way
to detect it earlier, because actually a lot of people that have prolactinoma are not even aware of it.
Development is a conservative field,
so to do it you have to have, tools, possibilities, money …
This is what I can have, everything in this lab.
So, when Tony came
and said "Do you want to try the Gel Doc EZ system,"
we said "Yes, of course, and
please put it on our level."
The imaging system that we
had in our lab, because it's our main tool in our lab,
was very old, first of all,
kind of slow…
The problem we had, actually, is that
we had the old system on the other level so we had to always go with our gel
up the stairs to take a picture.
It was taking time, not only walking there but taking a picture,
and then adjusting the conditions, and then we were coming back to our lab, and then
Oh no, I would prefer to have it different, and then going upstairs again…
So we were very keen to try the new system!
One of the things
that is very convenient in this new
Gel Doc EZ
is that
it's just a simple push-the-button.
Even a person that doesn't really know the machine can take a picture
and not bother with how to set up,
what to do, where to click…
People say when the machine doesn't break even when you do a stupid thing
— how do you call this kind of machine?
It's like, idiot-proof? [laughs]
So it's basically just
press the button
and it takes a picture.
I really appreciate the other part of the thing,
that it actually lets you manipulate the picture, it actually lets you dig out more.
It's a very versatile system
because you can use it not only with a DNA gel but also with protein gels,
and also with different types of staining
on both types of gels.
So we are using it for
DNA applications, for protein gel applications;
we're trying the
stain-free system…
So basically we are trying to use it every way possible.
We can take very good quality pictures with this camera,
so basically if I have a Coomassie stain
I can just take a picture and it's already
publication quality.
In the lab we are working on very simple questions — basic biology. It's called the
basic science.
So we are answering questions using the molecular
biology tools,
and basically this is not
application-driven science. However, we cannot forget,
at the end, our answers
can be potentially used in future therapies,
and our findings can be
actually really important. 99