{"id":46120,"date":"2017-06-13T10:24:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T14:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=46120"},"modified":"2017-06-13T15:40:50","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T19:40:50","slug":"commentary-by-wright-state-researchers-on-lou-gehrigs-disease-featured-in-prestigious-scientific-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/06\/13\/commentary-by-wright-state-researchers-on-lou-gehrigs-disease-featured-in-prestigious-scientific-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary by Wright State researchers on Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease featured in prestigious scientific journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

From left: Wright State researchers Elliott Hayden, Shulin Ju and Alan Cone published a commentary on research on Lou Gehrig’s disease in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Photo by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

A prestigious scientific journal that featured a paper on research into the causes of Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease asked a team of Wright State University researchers conducting similar research to evaluate the findings and submit expert commentary to be published along with the paper.<\/p>\n

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals, published a commentary, “Supersaturated proteins in ALS<\/a>,” from Shulin Ju, assistant professor of biological sciences<\/a>; Elliott Hayden, an M.D.\/Ph.D. student from Cleveland; and Alan Cone, a biomedical sciences Ph.D.<\/a> student from Dayton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Shulin involved his students is wonderful mentoring,\u201d said Christopher Wyatt, associate dean of the Wright State College of Science and Mathematics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in the United States, is a relentlessly progressive fatal neurodegenerative disease. Patients with ALS suffer from degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, leading to progressive muscular weakness and culminating in death due to respiratory paralysis. About 30,000 Americans are affected. No effective treatment is available.<\/p>\n

The goal of the Wright State research is to understand the mechanism of cytotoxicity of ALS-associated proteins using a simple cellular model yeast and to identify effective therapeutics. The specific proteins were also the focus of the journal-published paper, written by researchers at the University of Cambridge, Northwestern University and the University of Wollongong in Australia.<\/p>\n

Established in 1914, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a> publishes cutting-edge research in biology, physics, mathematics and other sciences. It also publishes commentaries, reviews, perspectives, colloquium papers and actions of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper on ALS was the top featured article in the edition.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are going to read this article,\u201d said Ju.<\/p>\n

Ju earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in his native China. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology at Wayne State University in Detroit and did post-doc training at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He joined the faculty at Wright State in 2013.<\/p>\n

Ju began his ALS research when he was at Brandeis. He used simple yeast to study disease pathways because the yeast cells are similar to those of humans. ALS can be genetic, but in most cases it is not. And in those cases, there is no apparent reason or cause. However, the two kinds of ALS have the same affected cells and disease progression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is to find a cure, or to slow down its progression at least,\u201d said Ju. \u201cA lot of research is going on in many labs. We need to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden said the research in the article was able to show how the different proteins linked to ALS are connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do all of these different things cause the same disease? No one really knows,\u201d said Hayden. \u201cBut this article tried to explain that and proposed an hypothesis on how all of these proteins are related to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden, who has been working in the lab for three years, said he is flattered that Ju asked him to comment on the article.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that he has trust in me, faith in me,\u201d said Hayden. \u201cHe always treats me like a colleague. This is just a prime example of that. And I got to read a paper that I might normally not read and go in-depth on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from Wright State with his M.D. and Ph.D.<\/a>, Hayden hopes to complete a medical residency specializing\u00a0in neurology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of our classes in medical school, we got to meet an ALS patient and interact with them and hear their story,\u201d he said. \u201cThat really had a huge impact on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cone wants to go into industry or work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, trying to develop therapeutic products for neurodegenerative diseases.<\/p>\n

Cone studies the same protein as Hayden, but instead of budding yeast uses fission yeast, which divides the same way as human cells do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Elliot finds something in budding yeast, I can test it in fission yeast and see if it holds up and vice versa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to contributing to the commentary, Cone created an illustration for the journal to illustrate the paper so that readers could quickly understand its findings.<\/p>\n

“This was a great honor,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very well-respected journal and I certainly didn\u2019t think my name would be in it, at least for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State biological sciences professor invited graduate students to write a commentary with him on ALS research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":46126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2064,2112,4277,4271,2023,2060,725,4265,2149,2016,715,18,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-biology","category-biomedical-sciences","category-biomedical-sciences-medicine","category-biomedical-sciences-ph-d","category-faculty","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-research-medicine","category-medical-students","category-medicine","category-news","category-research","category-science-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46120"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46130,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46120\/revisions\/46130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}