BaconNumbersInTheCellular
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Truth be told, it turns out that I'm a bit of a scientific Zelig who has been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time a number of times for reasons I can't really explain, at least not in purely scientific terms.
For example, when I was a post-doctoral fellow, which is the final stage in the long apprenticeship of a junior science geek, there was this really sharp young post-doc named Goberdhan working in the lab next door who needed some human cells with a limited lifespan because he wanted to subject them to a test he was developing that would turn cells blue when they were old, worn-out and ready to stop dividing.
Now, back then, in the early '90s, keeping human cells going/dividing that hadn't become 'immortal', either because they were derived from tumors, like, say, the infamous cells isolated from Henrieta Lacks' cervical cancer, or because they had been infected with viruses that turned off important cell cycle checkpoints so that they could get past the then still mysterious 'Hayflick limit', wasn't an easy task.
Truth be told, it turns out that I'm a bit of a scientific Zelig who has been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time a number of times for reasons I can't really explain, at least not in purely scientific terms.
For example, when I was a post-doctoral fellow, which is the final stage in the long apprenticeship of a junior science geek, there was this really sharp young post-doc named Goberdhan working in the lab next door who needed some human cells with a limited lifespan because he wanted to subject them to a test he was developing that would turn cells blue when they were old, worn-out and ready to stop dividing.
Now, back then, in the early '90s, keeping human cells going/dividing that hadn't become 'immortal', either because they were derived from tumors, like, say, the infamous cells isolated from Henrieta Lacks' cervical cancer, or because they had been infected with viruses that turned off important cell cycle checkpoints so that they could get past the then still mysterious 'Hayflick limit', wasn't an easy task.
And here's where the luck of the Zelig comes in...
Before I was a post-doc, I had been lucky enough to do my PhD with Nelly Auersperg who was a world expert in culturing human cells from normal tissues with just the type of limited lifespan that Goberdhan was looking for. So, I got Nelly to ship me some of her cells and made like that old Trooper song in the tissue culture room. Essentially, I grew some of Nelly's cells for a good/short time (i.e. so that they were still happily dividing) and some of them for a long time (i.e. so that they were starting to get tired just before they stopped dividing for good). Then I handed the cells over to Goberdhan so that he could try his little trick. Lo-and-behold, it was the cells that were old and tuckered out that turned blue.
Why does this matter?
Well, from Zelig perspective #1, I was lucky enough to become a co-author on Goberdhan's paper which has gone on to become a block-buster in science-geek terms with over 8,000 citations (that's a lot - I'm very happy that I have a number of other papers with hundreds of citations, but none of those even comes close to that 8,000 plus number - and fellow geeks and university administrators pay attention to those kinds of stats, kind of like baseball players and team owners with OPS+, if you get my drift).
As for Zelig perspective #2, it turns out that that Goberdhan's test, which he developed while working for one of the smartest scientists I've ever met, Judy Campisi, ushered in the modern version of the field of 'senescence' which, for good reason, is now all the rage in anti-aging circles.
All this happened more than thirty years ago while I was working for another super smart scientist named Mina Bissell at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which is perched on the hill up above the UC Berkeley campus.
Another nearby lab was run by yet another unbelievably sharp scientist named Shyamala Gopalan, shown at the top of the post, who was at that time working to figure out the functional relationships between estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and a funky cell surface protein called Her2. Anyone who has dealt with, or has a loved one who has dealt with, breast cancer will know those terms because they are three of the most important biomarkers of the disease that can now be targeted using rational therapeutics rather than the old fashioned slash-and-burn therapeutics that still need to be used when they are not present.
I never collaborated or worked directly with Shyamala, who was tough as nails and did not suffer fools gladly. However, I knew a little bit about steroid biochemistry due to my previous work with adrenocortical cells which she appreciated given that estrogen and progesterone are both steroids. I think she also gave me a bit of a benefit of the doubt because I was Canadian and had spent a little time as a gradual student at the Lady Davis Institute in Montreal where she had been before Mina helped bring her back to Berkeley.
Which brings me to Zelig perspective #3, which has nothing whatsoever to do with science, because...
If you haven't figured it out already, it turns out that Shyamala was Kamala Harris' mom.
Imagine that!
Why does this matter?
Well, from Zelig perspective #1, I was lucky enough to become a co-author on Goberdhan's paper which has gone on to become a block-buster in science-geek terms with over 8,000 citations (that's a lot - I'm very happy that I have a number of other papers with hundreds of citations, but none of those even comes close to that 8,000 plus number - and fellow geeks and university administrators pay attention to those kinds of stats, kind of like baseball players and team owners with OPS+, if you get my drift).
As for Zelig perspective #2, it turns out that that Goberdhan's test, which he developed while working for one of the smartest scientists I've ever met, Judy Campisi, ushered in the modern version of the field of 'senescence' which, for good reason, is now all the rage in anti-aging circles.
All this happened more than thirty years ago while I was working for another super smart scientist named Mina Bissell at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which is perched on the hill up above the UC Berkeley campus.
Another nearby lab was run by yet another unbelievably sharp scientist named Shyamala Gopalan, shown at the top of the post, who was at that time working to figure out the functional relationships between estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and a funky cell surface protein called Her2. Anyone who has dealt with, or has a loved one who has dealt with, breast cancer will know those terms because they are three of the most important biomarkers of the disease that can now be targeted using rational therapeutics rather than the old fashioned slash-and-burn therapeutics that still need to be used when they are not present.
I never collaborated or worked directly with Shyamala, who was tough as nails and did not suffer fools gladly. However, I knew a little bit about steroid biochemistry due to my previous work with adrenocortical cells which she appreciated given that estrogen and progesterone are both steroids. I think she also gave me a bit of a benefit of the doubt because I was Canadian and had spent a little time as a gradual student at the Lady Davis Institute in Montreal where she had been before Mina helped bring her back to Berkeley.
Which brings me to Zelig perspective #3, which has nothing whatsoever to do with science, because...
If you haven't figured it out already, it turns out that Shyamala was Kamala Harris' mom.
Imagine that!
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Why was Goberdhan's paper a blockbuster back in the days when video stores were king?...Because you can do his little trick in situ (i.e. in animal and human tissue and biopsies)...Thus, this became the first, and still only really good, way to track aging cells in the body in all sorts of situations, including during disease manifestations.
Dr. Gopalan never mentioned her kids when we chatted way back when... After all, her kids were all grown up by then (Kamala graduated from law school in 1989)...But she never missed a chance to ask how the then very tiny (now Bigger) e. was doing...Gosh...As I've said around here more than once before, it really does all go by in a flash...
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9 comments:
Cool story. That makes you a second scientific cousin to the future President of America I believe.
Naw...just the science geek version of Kevin Bacon's actorial relationship to, say, Meryl Streep.
Or some such thing.
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That is amazing and fun. It can be a very small world sometimes, even if we have 8 billion. So when President Harris is sworn in, you can casually say, Oh I used to work with her Mom.
Great story!
e.a.f.--
Small world on a big planet, indeed.
I actually didn't know until 2019 when I was reading an article about K. Harris in the Atlantic, saw this picture, and said...Hey!...I know that lady!
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For gods sake do not tell any of the MAGA types as they would instantly insult and defame her.
God help us from the anti science types because they want us back in the age of burning witches and worse.
A nice little story, which reminds me of a train ride in Germany so many years ago with an aging German princess, an American folk group and a Canadian who had the beer!
Thanks, this is a great recollection!
EE--
Tell us...Who was the princess?...What was the group??...What was the brand of beer???...Where was the train going and why were you going there????...Enquiring minds and at least a few PG readers want to know!
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Thanks GF....When I sat down to write this one I thought it would just be a quick paragraph or two but then all the details of actually mucking around in the lab came flooding back...Probably a little bit like old retired ballplayers that can tell you exactly what the pitch was, who threw it, and which way the wind was blowing when they were lucky enough to get a big hit.
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This was in 1983 and I was on a train from the Hook to Heilbronn Germany to visit a girl friend. (OK, OK, my European travels were because of girlfriends either in Germany, Holland, or the UK. - Bohemian me!)
Now after taking the night boat from Hrwich to the Hook (where I played a game of rugby on the car deck - god help me this is true!) I made sure to have 6 very large bottles of Grolsch beer (because they had the caps that could be closed), visible poking out of my backpack.
When we entered Germany I was in a (then typical) 8 seat compartment, located in a passenger carriage, with a door on the side corridor. There were 4 others in the room, with guitars and flute. After a round of Grolsch (which was their first taste of a good Dutch Beer), the songs began. The group, from what I can remember, was touring American Military bases.
A while later an elderly lady asked to enter the compartment and we made a seat for her as she brought some German Tortes for us.
She said that she really enjoyed folk music, which she first enjoyed from American soldiers just after WW2. I could not help but notice that their was two uniformed men in the corridor and she waved them off, saying "I think I am very safe here".
The songs and good times continues and the venerable lady even tippled some beer. She said she was a German Princess and she was going to Munich to visit the family home and relatives. she also told us that Germany no longer recognized German Royalty and she was from a time past.
Evidently she left her First Class compartment to sit with us. Simply she loved youth and good folk songs.
When I arrived my destination, she waved her finger and said to me; "do not leave your heart in Heilbronn..............."
As I left the compartment, the two "minders" ever vigilant, with one chap saluted and slightly bowed to me. and damn I thought he clicked his heels!
And that, was 40 years ago. So there you have it about all I can remember, of an age long past.
By the way, on the trip back to Harwich, I shared a 4-plex stateroom with a UK punk rock group, "the Gang of four", plus groupies. No that was an experience.
EE--
Great, great story about the Folkies and the Princess...But being a fellow of a certain age and musical inclination...The Gang of Freaking Four!!!...Apropos of the Princess' minders...This!
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