Dr. Moo-Yeal Lee (far right) and research team members discussing a lab sample in a 蜜桃视频 biomedical engineering lab
DENTON (蜜桃视频), Texas 鈥� An associate professor at the is developing a new way to study genetic factors and environmental exposures that may impact early brain development in relation to autism.
鈥淥nce we develop these underlying technologies, then this approach could be applied to many other areas of biomedical research,鈥� said in the in the .
Lee specializes in creating brain organoids in his lab for study
Lee is part of a three-person, multi-institutional team that also includes Xuexia Wang, professor of biostatistics at Florida International University, and Rebecca Schmidt, professor of public health sciences from UC Davis Health. The five-year project is funded by the National Institutes of Health, with $1.1 million of the grant going to 蜜桃视频.
鈥淥ne theory is that autism is caused by a genetic irregularity, but when we analyze patient data, only 10-20% of patients have a clear genetic irregularity,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淪ome researchers believe that exposure to environmental pollutions may play a role, or that autism may result from a combination of genetic factors and environmental toxicants.鈥�
Each member of the team has a role in the project. Schmidt, who leads the human cohort and environmental epidemiology studies, collects biological samples from infants/children diagnosed with autism and their parents while Lee creates tiny, lab-grown brain tissues called organoids for study.
Lee will study brain organoids created from cells representing people with and without autism, including samples from individuals with known genetic irregularites and those without.
Researchers cannot ethically expose people to potentially harmful environmental chemicals to study their effects on brain development. Instead, Lee can expose the lab-grown brain tissue to those chemicals.
鈥淲e cannot expose people to these toxicants, but we can expose these organoids to them,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淭hen we can analyze how much brain development is disrupted when the cells are exposed to these chemicals.鈥�
An important focus of the research is RNA, molecules that carry genetic instructions used to make proteins. Proteins carry out many of the functions within a cell. Lee is specifically studying an RNA modification called m6A, which plays an important role in brain development. He will collect data on how m6A is affected by exposure to different environmental toxicants.
鈥淥nce we have the patient cohort data and the organoid data, Wang will use machine learning to compare the two data sets and look for common factors,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淭his could help us a better understand the biological mechanisms associated with autism.鈥�
Working with organoids also presents challenges. Because organoids do not have blood
vessels to deliver oxygen to their cells, they must remain small enough to keep their
central cells alive. They also require a steady supply of nutrients and oxygen. The
organoids take at least two months to grow and can become too large to sustain if
their growth is not carefully regulated.
鈥淭o uniformly generate these organoids, we use a special device that we invented in the lab called a pillar-perfusion plate,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淚t lets us control their growth to about one cubic millimeter while also allowing us to deliver oxygen and nutrients directly so we can maintain healthy, viable cells.鈥�
Lee has one doctoral student working with him on the project as part of her thesis. She generates the organoids, exposes them to environmental toxicants and extracts the RNA to study their effects.
鈥淲ith this project, we are developing a platform that can give researchers new tools to study how biological changes occur,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淯ltimately, these tools could help researchers better understand the factors involved with autism.鈥�
From 鈥� Research