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Loudoun eighth-grader eyes a cure for cancer, partners with research team
Loudoun eighth-grader eyes a cure for cancer, partners with research team
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 by Hannah Dellinger, Times-Mirror Staff Writer
An Ashburn 13-year-old’s idea for a science fair project may produce a ground-breaking cure for cancer. ... Alex Misiaszek, an eighth-grader at Nysmith School for the Gifted, is collaborating with a research team in Baltimore to create an organism inside the human body that produces a cancer-killing molecule. The student will spend his free time researching and developing his hypothesis with professional scientists. Misiaszek says his motivation is simply “to help people.”
....
Misiaszek said his ground-breaking idea came in part from a science project he did last year. ... “I took the DNA from a coral cell that made it red and then I put it into an E. coli cell to prove that if you took DNA from one organism and put it into a foreign one, the foreign organism will pass that trait onto its offspring,” he explained.
“A few weeks later I found out about this Brazilian wasp called Polybia paulista that’s venom has a molecule in it called MP1 that can selectively target and kill cancer cells.” ... MP1 is able to kill cancer cells without harming any healthy cells, Misiaszek said.
“The phosopholipid structure of a cell is very specific and it’s uniform for all cells in your body,” he said. ... “But the phosopholipid structure of a cancer cell is very different. MP1 can bind to the cancer cell membrane and open up holes large enough to allow RNA and DNA and different organelles inside the cell to get out. Then the cell dies because it doesn’t have its necessary parts.”
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 by Hannah Dellinger, Times-Mirror Staff Writer
An Ashburn 13-year-old’s idea for a science fair project may produce a ground-breaking cure for cancer. ... Alex Misiaszek, an eighth-grader at Nysmith School for the Gifted, is collaborating with a research team in Baltimore to create an organism inside the human body that produces a cancer-killing molecule. The student will spend his free time researching and developing his hypothesis with professional scientists. Misiaszek says his motivation is simply “to help people.”
....
Misiaszek said his ground-breaking idea came in part from a science project he did last year. ... “I took the DNA from a coral cell that made it red and then I put it into an E. coli cell to prove that if you took DNA from one organism and put it into a foreign one, the foreign organism will pass that trait onto its offspring,” he explained.
“A few weeks later I found out about this Brazilian wasp called Polybia paulista that’s venom has a molecule in it called MP1 that can selectively target and kill cancer cells.” ... MP1 is able to kill cancer cells without harming any healthy cells, Misiaszek said.
“The phosopholipid structure of a cell is very specific and it’s uniform for all cells in your body,” he said. ... “But the phosopholipid structure of a cancer cell is very different. MP1 can bind to the cancer cell membrane and open up holes large enough to allow RNA and DNA and different organelles inside the cell to get out. Then the cell dies because it doesn’t have its necessary parts.”
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