My name is Celine-Lea Halioua-Haubold, and I am a rising senior studying Neuroscience at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. I have re-joined Dr. Evan Snyder’s lab at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute as a 2016 SRF Summer Scholar to continue my 2015 Summer Scholar project. I have long known my future career will lie somewhere in the field of Neuroscience, but only due to my internship last summer did I realize my passion lies in research and development of therapeutics for neurological diseases. A large number of the diseases that plague the central and peripheral nervous system lack an effective treatment, never mind a cure. As millions suffer from these types of diseases, there is a massive need for driven, innovative research in this area. Through the SRF program, I have begun to dip my toes into this field.

My first experience with wet-lab research was in 2013 through the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at UT, which places second-semester freshman in productive labs across multiple departments. I worked in the Nanomaterials for Chemical Catalysis FRI lab, led by Dr. Keith Stevenson. In 2014, I became an FRI mentor for incoming students. As a mentor I assisted teaching the relevant lab theory and basic bench chemistry techniques, along with ensuring safety in the lab. The majority of my research experience has come from working as a research assistant in Dr. Richard Morrisett’s lab from 2014 to 2015, where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Regina Mangieri. The lab investigates the neuronal changes induced by and associated with alcohol dependency. After assisting Dr. Mangieri for half a year, I began my own project investigating DNA-templated silver nanoclusters as a potential novel in vivo cell tracer. With the assistance of Dr. Mangieri, I provisionally showed that the Ag-NCs were non-toxic, stable in vivo for many weeks, had long-lasting bright fluorescence, and successfully labeled neuronal cell bodies.

Between 2015 and 2016, I studied abroad at Uppsala Universitet in Uppsala, Sweden, where I loosely followed the Bio- and Nanomaterials master’s program courses in the Department of Chemistry – Ångström. I briefly was involved with two research projects in Ångstrom. Under Dr. Sara Gallineti, I worked on a project investigating methods of strengthening calcium phosphate cements for eventual use as a bone cement on patients whom have broken a bone. I also assisted Maruthibabu Paidikondala with his project investigating a novel method of delivering DNA into cells using hyaluroran, a molecule which is part of the extracellular matrix, the structural and biological support secreted by cells to support surrounding cells.

Last summer, I investigated cholera subunit-B as a method of delivering therapeutics to the quickest and deadliest type of brain cancer, glioblastoma (Bleeker et al., 2012). Cholera Toxin Subunit B (CTB) is the protein which is part of the toxin released by V. cholerae. Infections of patients with this bacterium manifests as the disease cholera. CTB itself is non-toxic and interesting to researchers due to its neuronal specificity and efficacy in entering cells (Bharati et al, 2016; Harris et al., 2013). I have provisionally shown that by attaching a specific protein to CTB, I could sensitize these cancer cells to a secondary treatment, causing earlier cell death (Figure 1). Data collected also suggested that CTB enters the cell very quickly and does not degrade nor get pushed out of the cell – a fate that befalls many cell-targeting treatments due to the cell’s natural protective measures. Although these pilot experiments will require further study, the analysis suggests the potential of CTB as a therapeutic delivery method.