I am currently a senior at BASIS Scottsdale and this is my blog to document my time interning at Dr. Atul Lalani's office near Shea hospital in Scottsdale, AZ. I like listening to music, watching movies, taking long walks on the beach, and writing blog posts. So, at any time during reading my blog posts, please feel free to comment any amazing movies you would like me to watch or albums for me to listen to. I listen to all kinds of music except for country, so, if you have a country album you would like to suggest, please keep it to yourself and the world will be a better place for it.
The high school where I have spent my past four years is BASIS Scottsdale. BASIS is actually the reason for the creation of this blog in the first place, because, instead of attending school in the third trimester of our senior year, all of the seniors take part in senior projects that they have designed to carry out research in fields that they are interested in. My senior research project, as you can tell from the title of this blog, is named Genes: The Final Frontier. The project involves me interning at an office of endocrinology to input data taken from the national First Vitals study. This study is under the subject of pharmacogenomics and is integral to the development of the field of health care in the years to come. The First Vitals study involves analyzing the genetic sequence of several patients to try to determine the best drug to use to treat those individuals' illness and limiting the amount of negative side effects that their treatments give them. The idea is that health care needs to transition from the previous mindset that one medication with work for everyone equally to the mindset that we need to take into account everyone's genetic code to accurately give them a treatment that will work best for them.
So, I hope that I have interested you in my project and you will continue to come back and see all of the new, exciting developments in my life. If you have any further questions, please leave them in the comments section or feel free to contact me through my email designated on the right side of this blog. Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a nice day!
So you should totally listen to Hotel Allan by Allan Rayman. It's not country it's like indie RnB and it is wonderful. Less importantly (or I suppose more), are you going to be looking at any specific disease or illness or condition that is notably treated better with gene therapy or are you taking a broader look at the topic of gene therapy itself?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Evan! I explain it better in my week 1 blog post, but essentially a patient comes in with an illness and a drug that hasn't been working for them. So, I am not really looking at any specific illness, but a more general look at whatever illnesses are still bothering those who come in.
DeleteNice topic man. What do you think the outcome of your project might be? Or, how do expect this to unfold as it progresses? Looking forward to see what happens!
ReplyDeleteI think it will unfold as it progresses. What I thought was interesting from my time inputting data in Week 1 is that a lot of people have problems with the same drugs. For instance, many people have been having problems with opioids in that they haven't actually been getting a treatment that effectively eliminates their problems with pain. So, my conclusion may involve seeing which commonly used drugs are outdated, but we will see where the research takes me.
DeleteHi Jack! Based on your introductory post, I think you have a very clear understanding on the direction of your project. The implications for drawing a sold conclusion from this project would be huge! You said you would be inputting data from the First Vitals study. Would you also take part in analyzing this data to determine the correct prescriptions and doses for certain patients?
ReplyDeleteThe only amazing movie I can recommend of the top of my head is Hoodwinked! but I'm sure you've already seen it. Anyways, look forward to reading more!
As far as I know right now, the analyzing of the the data will be left up to the professionals, but I am hoping that I will get some insight into the different processes that they use to analyze the data.
DeleteHey Jack! I'm Alexis. Nice to meet you. I see you have an interest in movies. Being the film fanatic and future director that I am, I highly suggest investing your time in any and all Christopher Nolan movies. Also, judging by your chosen blog name, I'm assuming you're a Star Trek fan? I am too as well as a Star Wars nerd.
ReplyDeleteI'm also intrigued by the idea that medications vary depending on our genetic codes. Will you be writing about how medications are tested and how they work?
ReplyDeleteHey Alexis! Star Wars is amazing and Rogue One was crazy! Looking forward to 8 in December or whenever it is going to come out. To answer your question, in my week 1 blog post I talk about the experimental process of the First Vitals study, but essentially we give the patients surveys to see how their drug is effecting them negatively and not treating their illness correctly.
DeleteHi Jack! I think that your research idea is very interesting. I read that you will be working in an office of endocrinology. Does this mean that you will be looking at pharmacogenomics as they relate to endocrinology, or will you use that research to find a broader pattern? I can't wait to read more!
ReplyDeleteHey Dhanya! The fact that the study is happening in an endocrinology office does not really have much effect on the study itself, because people are coming in with all kinds of problems, anything from psychological to gastrointestinal. However, hopefully by consulting with doctors in this office of endocrinology, I can get a more nuanced perspective on how genes effect the way that a drug interacts with your body.
DeleteHey Jack! The idea that treatments should not be universal is certainly intriguing considering the direction the pharmaceutical industry has been moving in for the past several decades! My question for you this week is what specific treatments do you think would benefit best from this type of specialized treatment? And do you think that this type of treatment would provide an additional financial hurdle for patients?
ReplyDeleteHey Dalton! I think that all kinds of medical treatments would benefit from taking a more specialized approach. And to answer your other question about the financial hurdle, yes, taking into account genetics would add extra cost for the patient, but for some patients the choice is either paying for a drug that does not work or paying a bit more to find out which drug will actually work. So, for some patients the extra cost is worth it.
DeleteHey Jack,
ReplyDeleteI recommend every Marvel movie there is. I find this idea of personalized medicine interesting because of the amount of personal care and time this would take. How long would this process take if it does work? And, if it does work, how would this impact the price of treatment and production?
Hey Srishti! If more personalized care is standardized for the medical industry, then the time and cost of treatment would rise. However, for some patients who have tried multiple treatments that do not work, finding a medication that actually works, even though the process is a bit more expensive, is worth it.
DeleteHello Jack,
ReplyDeleteI find this project intriguing. I think that we should look at medicine in the perspective of others rather than one. In determining the best medicine, will you take into other factors such as price, and availability or just effectiveness?
Hey Lindsey! This experiment strictly looks at the effectiveness of the treatment but price and availability would be interesting to look at for future studies.
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ReplyDeleteHi Jack, this is really a fascinating field of study and one that I have been considering going into myself. I am intrigued by the idea of reading people's genetic code to determine what treatment is best for them. Regarding this matter I have two questions, how long does it take to read the genetic code of an individual, and how is the actual genetic code read?
ReplyDeleteHey Henri! The mouth swabs take around 10-14 days to analyze. I am unsure on the exact process of how they analyze a patient's genome but from what I have read they only test for specific genes and do not sequence the entire genome. If you search PGX testing in google, you can find a lot of websites that go in-depth on the subject.
DeleteHello Jack! You have a really interesting research project! I was wondering how you would be able to limit the negative side effects from the treatments or drugs you used?
ReplyDeleteHey Zak! So, how the study works is that the patients come in 90 days after receiving information on what new treatment they should pursue and they fill out a survey that details whether the new drug was better than the old one. So, the study is not trying to find a drug that works perfectly, because no drug will do that, but the one that works the best.
DeleteWow! Hey Jack! I love how you're focusing on precision medicine and genes at the Shea Hospital! I can't wait to see what you find!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hearing about what you're doing in the lab! Also, have you ever tried listening to Misterwives? I really like them, and you might want to give them a listen if you want!
Have a ton of fun and I can't wait to hear more!
Hey Lauren! Thanks for the music suggestion! I will check them out! Can't wait to share my journey through this study with you. Stay tuned!
DeleteHey. This is Sam Ennis. This project is very interesting and is for a good cause. I was wondering though what drugs you were looking into most? Thank you for reading, and I hope the best for your project!
ReplyDeleteHey Sam! I am not looking at any drugs in particular. The study looks at whichever drug is not working for the patients involved in the study.
DeleteHi Jack! I'm Anisha and I think that your project is quite interesting and innovative because it allows you to help with the progress in the medical world. I was also wondering what kind of illnesses are you trying to treat specifically and what drugs do you think would help treat those illnesses? Thanks for reading and can''t wait to read about what you discover.
ReplyDeleteHey Anisha! The study itself is not geared toward any particular illness or drugs, but what I may find as the project continues are the specific drugs that patients are having problems with that were once thought of as solid treatments. So, my conclusion from my research may be that a particular class of drugs are creating problems for people even though that was not the original intent of the study.
DeleteHello again Jack, it looks like you have been very busy in this past week. I can't wait to learn more about this topic. I am wondering if this project has already been able to help patients receive better medication or if it is just in the testing phases now.
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