Researchers Plan a New Study
4 pm: Researchers are Studying the Workings of Genes
In a research lab at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Hector Wong, MD, John Pestian, PhD, and Bruce Aronow, PhD, are studying a complex chart. Areas of intense red and blue are contrasted with softer tones and bright yellows. It might be a piece of modern art. But to the informed eye, it's a revealing look at the inner workings of human genes.
The image is produced when a drop of blood or other biological sample is analyzed on a microarray, or gene chip. Though it's only the size of a postage stamp, this gene chip is a powerful research tool. Each chip contains 20,000 genes — half the human genome. Soon the entire genome will fit on one chip.
In the past, researchers studied one gene at a time. With the map of the human genome and new technologies, researchers today have unimagined opportunities to use gene chips to analyze the activities of thousands of genes at one time. Scientists now can create a comprehensive molecular portrait of normal and diseased tissues based on the behavior of genes.
Dr. Wong has just received $1.7 million from the National Institutes of Health to use this technology to study septic shock, the body's response to a massive infection. A specialist in critical care medicine, he has seen too many children die from septic shock. Each year, 42,000 children in the United States develop septic shock. Even with the best medical care, over 4,000 die.
Why does treatment work for some and not others? Dr. Wong suspects that genetics plays a role and that a number of genes are involved. If he can identify those genes, researchers may be able to develop targeted therapies and determine which patients will respond best to which treatment.
"We're going in with no biases," he says. "We're going to look at the whole genome. The technology, the power, is there to do it. It's not your traditional hypothesis-driven approach to science. It's more discovery-oriented. It's risky. We may fall flat on our faces, but it's a chance worth taking. If we do well, we have the opportunity to become the genomic center for critical care."
