Sometimes it takes a very close look at a corn plant to find out why some people have diabetes or cancer.
Corn plants are growing on top of a UA parking garage and are supervised by Vicky Chandler, UA director of the Bio 5 institute, who said in very basic terms, she uses the plants as model organisms to figure out how their genes work. Gene regulation determines why certain genes are active at a certain time and how the plant shows it.
"Understanding how genes are turned on and off in the appropriate manner is applicable to every area of biology," Chandler said. "It's a very tightly controlled, orchestrated script for which genes come on and which genes don't."
Chandler said she primarily uses corn, which has a DNA that is very close to most of the world's cereals, because a lot of research has been done on the plant and it is economically relevant.
Not only is it possible to make the plant more profit-yielding in agriculture, it can also produce certain pharmaceuticals, Chandler said, which is why it is important to understand how to control and optimize gene expression.
"We use genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology tools to understand how genes are regulated," Chandler said. "We can manipulate a gene in certain ways and we get dramatic phenotypes so we can see it. It allows us to screen hundreds and thousands of plants that is very difficult to do in other creatures."
An important part of her research is the transferability of certain genes to humans and animals, she said.
There is a strong resemblance between the human's, mice and plant genomes, which is why Chandler has received funding from the National Institute of Health and the American Cancer Society, she said, because some of her findings are applicable to cancer and other diseases in humans.
"When we get an interesting consequence, we of course publish it and then others working in other fields can apply the question if works in plants, does it work in humans?" Chandler said. "And often it does."
Another aspect of Chandler's work is to explain the aspects of a mechanism called paramutation, which is associated with changes in how the proteins that are in the cell interact with the DNA, and how that information is read, she said.
Even though genes have a big responsibility in our heredity, they are not the only factor. Sometimes there can be changes, which can cause diseases that are not associated with genes and the DNA, she said.
"This is a fundamental violation of one of Mendel's fundamental laws," Chandler said. "For many years people thought it was just some weird thing that was going on in the plant, but it's not."
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was a biologist who showed, for the first time, how traits were inherited through genes.
Some scientists have tried to follow this trail and have found similar symptoms in the mouse, but this phenomenon is also very likely applicable to humans, Chandler said.
"It's not proven, but it sure smells like it," Chandler said. "There is an example of a predisposition for a certain type of diabetes. No one would have ever known that without us doing our work and uncovering a mechanism."
Besides the wide application of her work, Chandler said one of the most interesting parts of the job is the unpredictability of her findings, because no one would have guessed how the mechanism works until she stumbles on them.
"My goal is to solve this, I'm not gonna quit," Chandler said. "So I either solve the underlying mechanism of this, or I die. That's my goal and that's what's been driving me for the last 20 years."
Chandler said she is making great progress and it is very realistic to get behind the secret with the tools that have been developed in the last years.
"It's not a pipe dream that I can solve it before I drop dead," Chandler said.