Cai Jinwu, Associate Professor, Institute of Brain Science, Yangming University? Explain the motivation and experimental logic of studying key genes.
Cai Jinwu, an associate professor, said in the film: "It is actually quite difficult to find gene mutations related to brain-related diseases. Because these mutations often occur in the brain, it is difficult for us to examine them one by one. 」
"So I went back to a book I read when I was a student, which mainly described barbara mcclintock, the Nobel Prize winner's research on F gene. In this study, we mainly use a new method to induce the mutation of mouse embryonic stem cells by using jumping genes. Then, we will screen some brain development problems caused by this mutation one by one. 」
"We have discovered more than 30 new genes using this new method, and these genes may all play a very important role in the development of the brain. At the same time, we also found similar mutations in some patients with brain development diseases. These mutations can cause quite serious brain development diseases. 」
"Our new research methods, except the first one, are quite innovative, which can help us find some mutations in other related diseases in basic scientific research. At the same time, these 30 genes we found can help future doctors to become important indicators for early detection and early treatment in gene screening. 」
Screening method of drug-regulating genes? Benefit? Neonatal patients with brain development diseases
How many gene mutations in the human body can lead to abnormal brain development has always been a mystery that the scientific community has been trying to solve, especially many neonatal brain development diseases, such as cerebellar disease, flat brain disease and mental retardation, have been proved to be gene-related diseases. However, because there are more than 20,000 genes in human body, gene mutation in natural state is very rare. It is an extremely arduous task to test the relationship between genes and diseases one by one, just like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Cai Jinwu, an associate professor at the Institute of Brain Science of Yangming University, said: "Because the probability of gene mutation in nature or human beings is very low, it takes a very long time to find the disease-causing gene. But just one day in my sleep, it suddenly occurred to me that barbara mcclintock, a Nobel Prize winner, can apply his jumping gene technology to brain gene screening. Because corn, insects and even humans all have jumping genes, if animal models can be used to accelerate cell mutation, overcome the difficulties in human experiments and directly compare with diseased surgical tissues, we can quickly find the relevant problem genes and overcome the limitations of existing genetics. 」
Therefore, Cai Jinwu's research team did the opposite, using a gene that jumped in DNA sequence, implanting it into mouse brain stem cells to induce mutation, and observing which genes would have an impact on the development of mouse brain nerve cells. Using this jumping gene screening method, 33 genes that may be related to brain development were found.
Because most human genes can be found in mice, and the process of brain development is very similar, Cai Jinwu further cooperated with Dr. Guan from Taipei Rongzong Neuromedicine Center and Professor Lin from Genome Center to compare the genes found in mice's brains with those found in epileptic children's brains, and found that some mutant genes are consistent with each other, which confirmed that the screening method of jumping genes can accelerate the finding of the problem points that lead to abnormal brain development.
In addition, if this screening method of jumping funds can be fully studied by the scientific community, it can not only be applied to brain development, but also explore the relationship between other unknown genes and human diseases, making original contributions to basic science and subsequent medical applications.
Jumping gene was first discovered by barbara mcclintock, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, while studying maize in 1960s and 1950s. She found that the different colors on corn kernels are due to the phenomenon of "jumping" of genes, and they don't stay in a fixed gene sequence. Subsequently, jumping genes were found in many animals and plants. This process is generally considered to cause gene changes or recombination, and then affect the evolution and mutation of organisms.