A Study of the Capabilities of Sea Stars in the Aid of Alzheimers Research
Advisor: Sterre Hesseling
This study looks into the potential of sea stars’ regenerative capabilities in aiding Alzheimer’s research. Sea stars hold unique regenerative abilities, such as their ability to regrow not only lost limbs but also the majority of their bodies, which is credited to specialized regenerative cells and molecular pathways. These mechanisms can hold the potential for repairing brain cells damaged by Alzheimer’s disease. The primary goal of this study is to determine if and how stem cells from sea stars could be used to repair human brain cells and reduce neuroinflammation, a common symptom of Alzheimer’s. This study builds on current research regarding the regenerative processes in marine organisms while finding parallels that could stimulate brain cell regeneration in humans. I will have an internship with Moss Landing Marine Labs. Moss Landing Marine Labs is a lab in Monterey Bay where research is conducted by marine biology experts. In collaboration with this lab, I can get a hands-on experience that will give me a look into what being a researcher is all about.
Project Blog
Week 0: Introduction
Hello and welcome to my senior project blog, my name is Colin Duffy. I have been at Basis Independent Brooklyn since 6th grade. Throughout my time at Basis, I have experienced many advanced science classes and I am excited to take on a new challenge. For my senior project, I will be researching the capabilities of sea stars in the aid to curing Alzheimer's Disease. This subject means a lot to me as I have had a strong interest in marine biology since middle school. I have always been highly fond of collecting shells on the beach. Additionally, Alzheimer’s Disease means a lot to me as I have experienced loss from the disease personally. I know a lot of families in America also struggle with the disease. Throughout my senior project I will be looking at sea stars' regenerating capabilities and unique chemical properties to determine if the chemical pathways in Alzheimer's can be altered or repaired. For my on-site internship, I will be working with Elika Zahedi, pursuing her masters at Moss Landing Marine Lab (MLML) in Monterey bay. I will be able to work with experts like Elika to further add to my success in the project. MLML has 10 different labs I can work with varying from vertebrae ecology to biological oceanography. What I am most looking forward to is scuba diving and analyzing sea stars in their natural environment. By the end of my project I will have a finished research paper highlighting what I learned and the success I have had. I look forward to adding more to my senior project. You are also welcome to read my senior project proposal.
Week 1: Understanding Sea Stars
Welcome back to my blog!
Throughout week one I have conducted a literature review of sea stars. I am doing this to prepare for my visit to my internship in California. This step is vital because I feel as if it is crucial to obtain a rudimentary understanding of Sea Stars before I visit Moss Landing Marine Labs. I sourced an article online titled: The Sea Stars (Echinodermata: Asteroidea): Their Biology, Ecology, Evolution and Utilization.
Sea stars’, otherwise known as Asteroidea, structure is related to the their regeneration. Specifically, the limbs grow from the central disc which is in the center of the sea star. Surprisingly, sea stars can completely grow back with one limb as long as the central disc is attached.
The central disc plays an important role in regeneration, which is critical for the future of my project. Another important thing I learned pertains to sea stars reproduction. Most sea stars reproduce sexually, however, some reproduce asexually. In the asexual reproduction the sea stars central discs go through fusion to create a new sea star.
Those were just a few things I wanted to point out for this blog because I found them particularly interesting. I am thrilled for my upcoming trip to California to enhance my understanding and passion for this subject.
Stay tuned for next weeks blog!
Weeks 2-3: Diving Deeper
Welcome back to the blog!
Unfortunately, during week two of my senior project, I came down with a terrible illness. Because of this, I decided to combine weeks two and three into a single update. However, this did not slow down my educational pursuit in learning more about sea stars. Over the past weeks I have greatly expanded my knowledge of sea stars as I worked with my internship for several days and read deeply into sea stars regeneration.
Starting with my time at Moss Landing Marine Lab, I participated in lab work and data collection. All the while learning more about sea stars themselves and what it is like to work as a scientist in the marine biology field. I went to the lab with my on-site adviser, Ellie, and helped her with her algae identification. This was really interesting because I was really able to get a clear understanding of the nature of graduate-level research. Some of the other things we did were look at cross sections. First, we looked at cross sections of algae. But the compelling part was when I looked at the cross section of a sea stars arm. This tied into what I was learning and inspired future findings. We also did data collection for the lab. My adviser took me out to go intertidal exploration and we found several sea stars and their natural habitat. It was great to see them in their natural habitat because I saw all their anatomy like tube feet, anus, spines and central disc. We had also planned to go diving for further observation and data collection, but unfortunately, weather conditions didn’t cooperate. Weather affecting data collection is a real part of being a scientist and I just has to learn it the hard way.
On the more academic side of things, I recently have been learning more about sea star regeneration itself. There were a few findings that I found interesting and worthy of sharing. Sea stars use cells called undifferentiated cells which is pretty much what stem cells are for humans. They are called undifferentiated cells because they haven’t committed to a specific cellular lineage.
More specifically, I learned a bit about some pathways that are important for sea star regeneration. On that I wanted to share was the Fibroblast Growth Factor Signaling Pathway. This one stood out to me because it is important in driving the undifferentiated cells to the injured site and promotes nerve regrowth and blood vessel formation. This sticks out to me because this pathway could be highly key when looking at Alzheimer's disease and regeneration together. Particularly the aspect of getting undifferentiated cells to where they need to be and promoting nerve regrowth. I was able to learn about all this through my reading of Regeneration in Echinoderms: Molecular Advancements.
Those were just some of my experiences I wanted to share in this blog. I look forward to updating my blog next week!
Figure 1.
Week 4: Finishing Up With Sea Stars
Week 4 of my blog! The time is definitely going by fast. This marks the end of my time with sea stars for now as I will be looking into Alzheimer's the next 4 weeks!
This week I started my research paper that I am submitting at the end of this project. I added stuff related to what I have learned about sea stars over the past 4 weeks. Writing a research paper in science is still pretty new to me as the only one I have done before this was in my chemistry class this year. However, that just means there is so much more to learn and grow on. Looking back on this segment of my project, I have learned so much and gone through great experiences. Now that I have a solid understanding of the works of sea stars I am ready to learn about Alzheimer’s.
On that note, I have also done a little preparing this week for my Alzheimer’s segment of the project. I looked into organizations and experts in New York City that I could potentially speak to during the following part of my project. I found that some organizations like NYU Langone actually offer free education sessions about Alzheimer’s. There are also organizations like Alzheimer's Association that have volunteer opportunities that can give me a closer connection to the disease. I actually have worked with that association before and it would be nice to reconnect. Hopefully, through volunteering or attending education sessions I can talk to experts in the field that can give me more insight in my project.
The future is definitely exciting and I am enthusiastic to share more in my next blog.
Week 5: Looking into Alzheimer’s
Welcome back to my blog! This week was the first official week of learning about Alzheimer's.
I started by brushing up on some articles online like Review on Alzheimer’s Disease by Mahima Anil Nikam. I found this article very useful as it went over the more general things about the disease. For example, it started with symptoms and started moving into more specific things such as how neurons are damaged and where it happens in the brain. Having an understanding of these fundamental principles is essential to connecting with experts and learning more in the future. It was an interesting read and it brought me back to my days in AP Psychology when we briefly went over a bit of this.
This week I also was watching some videos on NYU Langone’s website. The videos were of previous events on Alzheimer’s were experts get together and some have lectures. A lot of the videos were centered around parts of Azheimer’s that were useful for the public to know. For instance, they would be most helpful if you were someone who had a family member experiencing the disease. Nevertheless, there were many high regarded people giving guest lectures.
I watched some of the lectures and next week I am working on finding someone that spoke that I can connect with. Connecting with some of these people will be great because hopefully they can point me in the right direction for aspects of my project. As for in person events, it did not seem like they were going to hold any in the near future unfortunately.
Next week I hope to learn more about the more technical parts of the disease and get into conversations with experts.
Weeks 6-7: New Approaches
Welcome back to the blog! This blog is named new approaches because there were things throughout these two weeks where I had to change to achieve a goal.
One thing that didn’t work from the last blog was making connections with experts. Unfortunately the expert I reached out to never responded which is understandable. This is all apart of the process as cold reach outs are not the most effective for connecting. This time I reached out to around 7 experts which I found through and Alzheimer’s Directory. One of the experts does her research at UNC at Chapel Hill which is where I am going next year. Hopefully, that closer connection can get me that meeting and further progress my project.
Another new approach I took was really looking into the nitty gritty parts of Alzheimer’s. Something I found highly interesting was the Amyloid Hypothesis. This hypothesis is about how Alzheimer’s is caused by the build up of Beta-Amyloid creating insoluble deposits found between nerve cells. I learned a lot about this from Arjun Masurkar’s video on the hypothesis found on the NYU Langone website. I really enjoyed this video as he was very well spoken and very good at building up knowledge to make the more complicated points make sense.
Another article really caught my attention as well. The article was about how the Amyloid Hypothesis was losing its value in being a critical cause of memory retention. The article Alzheimer’s Disease: is there still hope for the amyloid hypothesis? was written by Pharmaceutical Technology and highlighted how new medicines reducing the plaque still were not improving cognitive ability. Reading this showed me how complex everything was in the current medical field as things can always be invalidated.
On top of reaching out and doing more research I also started to do more planning for the future of my project. I was making plans to go back out to California to make the finalizing aspects of my project with my internship. It would be great to visit and have some proof reads and gather good pictures for my presentation.
Week 8: Finalizing with Alzheimer’s
Well, welcome back to my blog! Week 8 marks the last part of my Alzheimer’s section of the project. Over the next final weeks I am looking forward to connecting what I have learned about sea stars and Alzheimer’s Disease to really make my project complete. Additionally, in the coming weeks I am also looking forward to finishing my research paper and creating a presentation about my project. I am still looking for an Alzheimer’s expert to talk to and hope to achieve that soon. This has been an awakening to how hard it is to make connection and talk to experts sometimes. The positive is that I now know how hard it is and can better prepare for any future projects.
This week I learned about some current therapies that are treating Alzheimer’s today. Over the past few years there has been drugs created targeting the amyloid build up. For example, approved in 2023 Lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody that removes plaque. This is very similar to what the steroids in sea stars hope to do and possibly do it with higher efficacy.
In terms of research in coming weeks, I am really optimistic about connecting the Amyloid Hypothesis to the steroids found in sea stars in hopes of reducing neuroinflammation. I am also eager to read more into how sea stars differentiated cells can be used as stem cells and finish the cell cycle as a human brain cell. I also think that even if the differentiated cells cant directly help brian cell regeneration, there is still much to be learned when looking at the regeneration of sea stars that can inspire new therapies in humans.
Stay tuned for next weeks blog where I’d like to share new updates on my research and my experience starting to make my presentation.
Week 9: Creating the Presentation
Hello all and welcome back to the 9th week of my blog. It is kind of hard to believe time went by this fast and that I am at this point already. Now that I am nearing the end of the project I need to create a presentation to show for what I learned throughout my project.
One thing that I found very important in making my presentation was the colors used. I wanted to use colors that were very representative of my topic but worked well. Firstly, the most important color was a bold purple. Purple is a significant color because it represents Alzheimer’s Disease and is used in charity, research, and organizations. For example, the Alzheimer’s Association uses the exact purple in their logo. Another key color was a deep blue representing the ocean. The blue works well because it goes nicely with the purple and is representative of the habitat in which sea stars live in. One of the final colors I used was coral. This color stands out a lot and represents the sea star aspect of my project. The coral reminded me of the bat stars I saw tidepooling in California with my internship. The bat star is what I most commonly studied during my time in California.
While talking about the colors I used is a little random, I think it is a nice reflection of the project itself and what I have been studying. I also wanted to mention how I was getting closer to finding an expert of Alzheimer’s to talk to. Instead of just cold contacting I am now looking into talking to experts that are friends of friends to get that interview.
Next week I am excited to share about my experience in adding to my research paper and how that translates into what I have done this project. See you next week!
Week 10: All Coming Together
Welcome back to my blog! This week has really been crunch week involving a lot of writing my research paper and designing my presentation. I am actually presenting earlier due to scheduling issues so everything is all due for me a bit sooner than anticipated.
Some good news for this week is I found someone I am going to interview for my project in regards to talking about Alzheimer’s. My interviewee was an undergrad student at MIT for biology and currently pursuing a PhD at Harvard. At Harvard she has worked in a neuro-aging lab where they study the brain as humans get older. This is a great parallel for my project because of Alzheimer’s and I am looking forward to learning more from her. She has a lot of research experience to speak about and can definitely improve my project.
For a lot of the week I spent time writing my research paper so I figured I could provide insight on my experience. While writing I was thankful that I created an outline before hand as it made the actual writing a lot easier. My outline consisted of an introduction, literature review, hypothesis, methodology, etc. They were just sections that help guide the reader and myself to show what my project is all about.
I spent a lot of time writing about neurofibrillary tangles and wanted to provide a sneak peak and share what I wrote about that. These tangles are abnormal accumulations of protein. The proteins are called tau proteins and collect inside neurons. Tau proteins are typically used to stabilize the neuron, however, during Alzheimer’s they get tangled and damage the neurons ability to function.
Next week I have the rehearsal for my presentation so I am looking forward to that. See you next week in my blog!
Week 11: Interviews and Presentations
Welcome back to the blog! This week was a pretty big week as I interviewed Chloe and did a rehearsal presentation for this project. I got some great feedback for my presentation and I am going to improve a few things for my real presentation on Monday.
My interview with Chloe went really well as we had the opportunity to tall about my project and reflect on ideas. Chloe made me look at my project in a different lens and was very helpful for the overall outcome of my project.
One of the things we talked about was stem cell therapy. She had a lot to talk about in that topic because she has worked in a stem cell lab during her time at Harvard graduate school. I learned that stem cells are taken at a very early stage and put into a dish where scientist curate them to a desired outcome. The stem cell is given a very specific environment and stimuli in order for it to become the correct specialized cell. This was great to learn about because I was able to look at my project and think about how sea star undifferentiated cells could be used in this manner.
Another thing we talked about was her experience in a neuro-aging lab. There were some interesting new perspectives about Alzheimer’s that was brought to my attention. Apparently, researchers are leaning away from studying Alzheimer’s because it is hard to test the disease. For example, when testing drugs on a mouse, it is not apparent if the mouse memory has improved because they cannot communicate like humans.
Next weeks blog is actually the last blog which is crazy and I will be completely done! See you in next weeks blog!
Week 12: Final Blog
It is now week twelve which marks the end of my senior project. This project has been an unforgettable experience and I’d like to thank a few people who made it possible. Firstly, the senior project committee for reviewing my project and making this all happen over the years. I got amazing feedback throughout my time which only strengthened the project greatly. I also want to give a big thank you to Elika Zahedi for making my internship possible. She is very busy and was nice enough to take time out of her work to help an aspiring researcher with a project. The memories I got while at my internship will be unforgettable. Another big thank you to Chloe for doing an interview with me and helping me see my project in new perspectives. Lastly, thank you to my faculty adviser Ms. Hesseling. She was the GOAT and was very supportive throughout the project. Im glad that we both got to experience the senior project for the first time together.
In terms of the final presentation and project, it went very well. I am really proud of how much I improved my presentation from the rehearsal to the final. I was also really proud of my research paper and did not expect to write as much as I did. Overall amazing experience and it was a pleasure updating these blogs!