When Allen resident Wesley Neuner learned that his friend’s kidneys were failing he was shocked. How could someone in his twenties, who seemed perfectly healthy, suddenly be diagnosed with kidney disease? Neuner wanted to help, so he went into what he calls “research mode.” As a biotechnology student at Collin College, he was in the perfect place to stay in that mode and develop a new protocol that could eventually be shared with scientists who are trying to help people suffering with Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS).
“My friend, he’s in a bad way,” Neuner said. “He’s in the hospital two to three times a week doing dialysis. I wouldn’t have known what this was without him. It is more common than you would think, and a lot of people don’t know they have it until they have kidney disease.”
Neuner discovered his friend had a genetic mutation in a particular podocyte gene. His goal was to make a lab study model of the disease on a molecular level. In his cell culture class, he and his lab partner Josh Lee used a technique called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) which his professor explained is a way that bacteria can insert snippets of viral DNA into their own genome as a sort of genetic memory.
“CRISPR is a technique that bacteria cells use to fight viruses, their predators,” said Carole Twichell, Collin College biology professor. “Bacteria store the genetics for the virus that tried to kill them. Every time viruses come in, the bacteria make guided missiles to attack them. A bacterium will have a whole bunch of these genetic memories for different viruses it has fought off.”
Twichell explained that CRISPR can be used with animal and human cells for gene therapy and added that in the United Kingdom CRISPR is being used to cure genetic blindness in mice.
“Before CRISPR, researchers could put a gene in, but they couldn’t control where it went. With CRISPR, you can cut right where the mutation is, repair it and essentially remove the mutation all together,” she said.
“Basically, I want to use the same process to mutate the cell line to reverse FSGS,” Neuner said.
Twichell uses an analogy to explain the overarching concept.
“Imagine you want to breed a dog, a Dachshund, that is missing an ear,” Twichell said. “It is still a Dachshund even if it only has one ear. Wesley was making a kidney cell that is missing a particular gene.”
In this case, the missing gene is the one that causes a disease. Neuner started with a lengthy gene sequence and identified the correct area near the genetic mutation to insert the CRISPR complex. A protein on that complex can cut the DNA. He used a process called transfection to insert the CRISPR complex. Neuner is currently in the process of verifying that all of the reactions worked properly.
Neuner presented his research at the college’s Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference and the Collin STEM Research Symposium.
According to Twichell, many students do not have the opportunity to create their own research projects until graduate school, but Collin College students can start that process early as undergraduates.
“As far as we know, Wesley’s idea hasn’t been done,” said Twichell. “The greater impact of our students doing their self-directed research is that it changes them and creates an opportunity for everyone in our circle. The students get the chance to succeed or fail in something that has never been done before.”
The fact that the classes are small at the college was key for Neuner who said that his success rate in the lab was enhanced by the fact that it was easy for him to receive clarifications on his project from his professor.
“I learned a tremendous amount this semester and had an incredible amount of discovery time,” Neuner said. “I had the time and freedom to learn how to do things by myself and for myself. I was never lost because my professor was always there guiding me. I went to the library and picked up a book on kidney disease, researched genes online and experienced epiphany moments, and that was incredibly gratifying.”
In the future, Neuner wants to perform clinical research, working with molecular biology, genetics and biotechnology. After transferring to a university next spring, he is contemplating walking in his professors’ footsteps so he can pay that discovery experience forward.
“I decided to do this project because I wanted to let my friend know someone was there for him,” Neuner said. “I am hoping to create something researchers can pick up and use. My idea of a better world is one in which people don’t have to deal with genetic disorders.”
For more information about classes at Collin College visit https://www.collin.edu.
Reprinted with permission of Allen Image