Hey, so I’m David Yao. I’m at UCLA in Dr. Kosuri’s Lab and I’m working on a
couple of really cool projects. I’m basically trying to genetically engineer mamlian cell
lines with what we call landing pads. These landing pads are basically regions within
the genome that we can easily introduce different genetic packages. So in the field of synthetic
biology which is kind of like programming, except instead of binary zeros and ones we
work with DNA. We’re trying to introduce a lot of different things into mamlian cell
lines to either give them new functions or to study existing functions within various
genes that exist. So born and raised in sunny southern California, west coast, best coast.
So my parents have backgrounds in engineering and programming but in terms of their actual
day to day jobs they don’t really do much science. Growing up I was not exposed to science
at all. In our house we spoke more about business, history, politics instead of science. But
I don’t think it makes really that big a difference and if anything being exposed to
the social sciences, to history, politics, current events, I think that’s also very
important for people who want to make a career out of science because the work that we do
is inherently tied to society’s demands, society’s needs. So I think it’s really
important. In synthetic biology we really try to understand all that has been done throughout
life, throughout evolution. Obviously in these hundreds of millions, billions of years there
have been many cells and these cells have learned to evolve tools to solve complex problems,
you know how to regulate cell division, how to store energy, how to generate energy. As
synthetic biologists we try to take all the things we’ve learned about how these cells
do things and we try to hack it or engineer it to fill our own purposes. So for example
we see bacteria that can break down toxins, break down sludge and turn it into energy.
What if we could do the same thing with waste water, you know, water that’s been polluted.
What if we could not only filter water but at the same time generate electricity from
it? That’d be huge. Also things like hacking bacteria to turn sugar into fuel. You know.
There’s so much potential in synthetic biology and we have all of the research to draw from
as inspiration and motivation to solve some of these complicated problems. So my project
in the lab is working on developing these landing pads, genetically engineering cells
in such a way that it’ll be easy for us to introduce new genetic material into them
afterwards so we can study a wide range of genes, diseases, cell states. In terms of
the types of techniques and tools that I work with, a lot of cell culturing theme requires
us to work in cell culture hoods just to keep things sterile. There’s a lot of pipetting
work that goes into it but a lot of precision as well especially when it comes to dealing
with mammalian cells. Some of them are very finicky to culture. Some of these cell lines
are cancer cell lines. We have brain cancer cell lines, different kidney tumor cell lines
and so by putting these landing pads in these different cell lines, we can then study them
in parallel and we can see how these tumors are similar, how they’re different, and
how they respond to similar genetic manipulations. So this way we can get an understanding of,
you know, what genes are dysregulated in these different cell types, what might we do to
fix them to get them to start working normally and in general we just want to tinker with
these different pieces of these genes to really get a good idea of what’s going on inside.
So there are a lot of factors that really motivated me to get into and continue my tenure
in science and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that diseases that society
is really faced and challenged with today aren’t the types of diseases that people
faced, you know, fifty a hundred years ago. It’s no longer these illnesses that strike
really quickly but rather its chronic diseases, you know Alzheimer’s, brain disease, cancer.
A lot of these diseases have genetic bases and so in order to tackle them it’s really
important that we understand things on the genetic level and even be able to genetically
engineer solutions to them. And so that’s one reason why I really felt like for me going
into genetics was a good way to go but what really motivates me to continue in the field
is the fact that it’s just so exciting. You know, there’s a silent revolution going
on and people in the public don’t really hear about the behind the scenes of science,
about this exciting race that’s just constantly going forth with scientists around the world
just trying to discover the next step, trying to see what’s going on and being in the
field you’re pretty much at the forefront of that. You get the bird’s eye view. You
see what’s going on and it’s just exciting because you realize that all the things you’ve
seen in the movies, it’s not just science fiction anymore. It’s a practical day to
day reality. People are making these things possible and the questions that we didn’t
even know how to ask are now being answered. And so seeing those things and also thinking
ahead, you know, what’s society going to look like 10 to 20 years in the future? Technology
is really what drives societies to change and once we enable some of these genetic engineering
tools, synthetic biology. Once they become a lot more empowered it’s just, I don’t
know, it’s just exhilarating to even begin thinking about what the world’s going to
become you know, 20 years from now and so I think that chasing after this excitement,
this you know, this grand drama, I think that being in the field is definitely the best
front row seat that you can get.