MARCH 19, 2003 | Nikiya Meeks spent last summer creating databases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Meeks was only 20 at the time and did not yet have an undergraduate degree. She was an information systems major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), an urban university about three miles from the UAMS campus. As an undergraduate summer fellow, she worked at the UAMS General Clinical Research Center and at the university’s microarray research facility.

”She has the kind of mind that basic scientists of the 21^st century need at their sides – one that can apply computer science and information science to biomedical research,” molecular biologist and microarray research leader Charlotte Peterson, Ph.D., of UAMS says about Meeks. Dr. Peterson directs the laboratory where Meeks had a summer fellowship and now works. “Scientific exploration in the 21^st century will depend on people with expert qualifications in bioinformatics – just like the explorers of earlier centuries depended on mapmakers,” she says.

A graduate of Hermitage High School in the Arkansas Delta, Meeks had the summer science fellowship thanks to the Arkansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network, which funds summer stipends for undergraduate students and faculty members to work on basic science projects at UAMS, UALR, and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She gained experience creating databases at both the General Clinical Research Center, located at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (VA), adjacent to UAMS, and in the microarray facility.

Having completed a bachelor’s degree in information systems and business administration at UALR, Meeks is now working in Dr. Peterson’s laboratory again, fine-tuning the microarray database, which stores information about tissue samples that scientists from UAMS, VA and other research institutions send for analysis. Microarray analysis uses powerful technology to see which genes are activated in individual cells. Marjorie Beggs, Ph.D., directs the microarray core facility at UAMS.

Meeks is trying to modify the programming code in the database so that individual researchers can use the database for analysis as well as storage and retrieval of information. Finally, she is creating an online data entry system that will help scientists organize their data according to international Minimal Information about Microarray Experiments (MIAME) standards.

Meeks wants to be among the first students in a new master’s and doctoral program in bioinformatics in Arkansas. Scientists at UAMS and UALR are working to create the first bioinformatics degree program in the state and one of the first in the region. Helen Benes, Ph.D., a molecular biologist in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the UAMS College of Medicine, is spearheading the project for UAMS. Her counterpart at UALR is Steve Jennings, Ph.D., M.B.A., of the UALR “Cyber College,” or Donaghey College of Information Science and Systems Engineering.

”We want computer science majors at undergraduate institutions in Arkansas and surrounding states to seriously consider entering the field of bioinformatics,” Dr. Benes says. Students will be able to apply to the program through either UAMS or UALR and will take classes on both campuses. “We are building on the strengths of both universities to construct a program neither of us could create alone,” she says.

The discipline of integrating computer and information science to acquire, organize, store, analyze, and visualize biological and biomedical data, bioinformatics is essential to modern scientific research.

Dr. Peterson’s cellular studies are an example of scientific research that relies on bioinformatics. Dr. Peterson’s research group has tentatively concluded that stem cells present in adult muscle, which participate in muscle repair and regeneration, become more adipocyte-like, or fat-like, in old age – leaving the individual less able to recover from muscle injuries. ”The transformation of muscle stem cells, and potentially bone stem cells as well, into adipocytes in old age could explain why a woman of 80 has so much more trouble recovering from a fall or from extended bed rest than a woman of 40,” Dr. Peterson says. (See related article.)

Work by John Shaughnessy, Jr., Ph.D., of the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at UAMS is another example of scientific research involving bioinformatics. Dr. Shaughnessy uses microarray technology to determine which of the estimated 35,000 human genes are "turned on" or turned off" in cancer cells. The variability in myeloma survival "is vast, with some patients succumbing within months while others can live for a decade," Dr. Shaughnessy says. Currently only 20 percent of this variability can be explained. The hope is that scientists can link distinct "profiles" of "on," or expressed, genes, and “off” genes, to variation in myeloma patient outcomes. The profiles will help physicians match treatments to individual patients, for so-called "personalized medicine." Examining the individual genes is a huge data processing project that is not possible without sophisticated computer software and highly-trained researchers who know how to use it. (See related article.)

A $6 million grant to UAMS, UALR, and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, for the Arkansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network is helping the two institutions create the new degree program. (The degree will need approval from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.) The grant from the National Institutes of Health is allowing the three universities to recruit new faculty members with advanced expertise in bioinformatics and other biomedical research areas.

Links on This Page

Arkansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network: http://brin.uams.edu/
Related article about Peterson: http://www.uams.edu/today/2002/090502/cmresearch.htm
Related article about Shaughnessy: http://www.uams.edu/today/2002/121802/newgift.htm
UAMS, UALR Announce: http://www.uams.edu/TODAY/2003/032003/collaboration.htm
New Gift Will Help: http://www.uams.edu/today/2002/121802/newgift.htm
Molecular, Genetic Scientists: http://www.uams.edu/today/2002/090502/cmresearch.htm
UAMS Scientists First: http://www.uams.edu/today/2002/013102/peterson.htm
Cellular and Molecular Research: http://www.uams.edu/today/092701/video.htm
UAMS, Partners: http://www.uams.edu/today/092701/partners.htm

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