We interviewed a scientist that was researching the disease that we found in our family. I chose to interview Ian Sweet from University of Washington.
The disease that I was studying was diabetes
Interview
Sydney: Do you could explain where you work and what your title is?
Mr. Sweet: My official title is Research Associate Professor, and I work at the University of Washington Department of Medicine.
Sydney: What does your typical day look like?
Mr. Sweet: I have 2-3 people working in my lab each day, and I have to design experiments for them to carry out each day. So I go over their experimental protocols and procedures each day and analyze the data they generate. THe reset of my day consists mostly of writing grants to bring in money for the projects and salaries, and writing our results up in the form of manuscripts which I ultimately submit for publication in various research journals.
Sydney: What type of weekly or monthly goals do you set?
Mr. Sweet: Ultimately we would like to cure diabetes. In this mission, we attempt to understand what causes the disease, and try to develop strategies that may help patients with diabetes.
Sydney: How did you come to researching diabetes?
Mr. Sweet: I have been diabetic for 30 years. I started doing diabetes research about 3 years after I was diagnosed (in 1983).
Sydney: Can you tell me a little about your current work and its implications?
Mr. Sweet: I have multiple projects. Project 1: We try to grow insulin producing cells (in other words pancreatic beta cells) from stem cells. If successful, we will transplant these cells in to patients with diabetes. Human islet transplantation has shown some promise as a cure for diabetes, but there are no where near enough human islets available to treat the thousands of newly diagnosed diabetic patients each year. Project 2. We try to understand how a pancreatic islet can sense the glucose levels in the blood and release the appropriate amount of insulin. One factor is intracellular calcium, and we have obtained evidence that another factor is a protein called cytochrome c, which is a protein that resides in the mitochondria. It seems that signaling by cytochrome may be reduced in diabetes, and could explain the loss of insulin secretion that occurs during long standing Type 2 diabetes. Project 3. We are working on mechanisms mediating the action of a diabetes drug that is under investigation called a glucokinase activator. Islets from Type 2 diabetics appear to have impaired metabolic activity, causing the islets to be less sensitive to glucose. The glucokinase activators appear to correct this defect by increasing the metabolic sensitivity to glucose, in part by increase cytochrome c signaling.
Sydney: I am interested in what your life is like as a researcher/clinician on a day to day basis. Is there something that you would like to share with the general public or community that cares about prevention, therapies and cures for the disease?
Mr. Sweet: Day to day activities are good for me, as I very much enjoy designing experiments, the physical principles involved with developing systems to make precise measurements, and analyzing and interpreting data. I also enjoy writing manuscripts and telling the scientific community about our findings. To some extent, I think that writing grants is an important part of planning your future research, but grant funding levels are low right now, and we have to write many grants in order to obtain enough resources to keep our laboratories operating. Time to write grants, when it becomes a very large part of one's overall activities, takes away from time to actually carry out good research. Certainly working with very bright people from all over the world, who are very passionate about their mission is one of the great aspects of being a scientist/researcher.
Sydney: As part of the 11th grade project, we are creating an art piece in studio art that I hope can serve to represent a piece of your work. Is there an image or idea that represents what you do that I can work towards to represent the important things that you do? If you don't have ideas now, we will be starting the artwork on Nov. 7th and would love to hear any ideas before then. Anything would help and would be amazing!
Mr. Sweet: This is the toughest question of all. I cannot say that a visual image comes to mind. However, I think the idea that harnessing the process of scientific inquiry and applying it to medicine has lead to the developments of treatments that has alleviated suffering. Vaccines for polio, antiobiotics, anesthetics, and the discovery of insulin, are some of the great triumphs of medical research. As more people are afflicted with diabetes, I am motivated to develop an understanding of diabetes in the hope that I can contribute to the prevention of the complications that accompany this disease and ultimately lead to a cure.
Mr. Sweet: My official title is Research Associate Professor, and I work at the University of Washington Department of Medicine.
Sydney: What does your typical day look like?
Mr. Sweet: I have 2-3 people working in my lab each day, and I have to design experiments for them to carry out each day. So I go over their experimental protocols and procedures each day and analyze the data they generate. THe reset of my day consists mostly of writing grants to bring in money for the projects and salaries, and writing our results up in the form of manuscripts which I ultimately submit for publication in various research journals.
Sydney: What type of weekly or monthly goals do you set?
Mr. Sweet: Ultimately we would like to cure diabetes. In this mission, we attempt to understand what causes the disease, and try to develop strategies that may help patients with diabetes.
Sydney: How did you come to researching diabetes?
Mr. Sweet: I have been diabetic for 30 years. I started doing diabetes research about 3 years after I was diagnosed (in 1983).
Sydney: Can you tell me a little about your current work and its implications?
Mr. Sweet: I have multiple projects. Project 1: We try to grow insulin producing cells (in other words pancreatic beta cells) from stem cells. If successful, we will transplant these cells in to patients with diabetes. Human islet transplantation has shown some promise as a cure for diabetes, but there are no where near enough human islets available to treat the thousands of newly diagnosed diabetic patients each year. Project 2. We try to understand how a pancreatic islet can sense the glucose levels in the blood and release the appropriate amount of insulin. One factor is intracellular calcium, and we have obtained evidence that another factor is a protein called cytochrome c, which is a protein that resides in the mitochondria. It seems that signaling by cytochrome may be reduced in diabetes, and could explain the loss of insulin secretion that occurs during long standing Type 2 diabetes. Project 3. We are working on mechanisms mediating the action of a diabetes drug that is under investigation called a glucokinase activator. Islets from Type 2 diabetics appear to have impaired metabolic activity, causing the islets to be less sensitive to glucose. The glucokinase activators appear to correct this defect by increasing the metabolic sensitivity to glucose, in part by increase cytochrome c signaling.
Sydney: I am interested in what your life is like as a researcher/clinician on a day to day basis. Is there something that you would like to share with the general public or community that cares about prevention, therapies and cures for the disease?
Mr. Sweet: Day to day activities are good for me, as I very much enjoy designing experiments, the physical principles involved with developing systems to make precise measurements, and analyzing and interpreting data. I also enjoy writing manuscripts and telling the scientific community about our findings. To some extent, I think that writing grants is an important part of planning your future research, but grant funding levels are low right now, and we have to write many grants in order to obtain enough resources to keep our laboratories operating. Time to write grants, when it becomes a very large part of one's overall activities, takes away from time to actually carry out good research. Certainly working with very bright people from all over the world, who are very passionate about their mission is one of the great aspects of being a scientist/researcher.
Sydney: As part of the 11th grade project, we are creating an art piece in studio art that I hope can serve to represent a piece of your work. Is there an image or idea that represents what you do that I can work towards to represent the important things that you do? If you don't have ideas now, we will be starting the artwork on Nov. 7th and would love to hear any ideas before then. Anything would help and would be amazing!
Mr. Sweet: This is the toughest question of all. I cannot say that a visual image comes to mind. However, I think the idea that harnessing the process of scientific inquiry and applying it to medicine has lead to the developments of treatments that has alleviated suffering. Vaccines for polio, antiobiotics, anesthetics, and the discovery of insulin, are some of the great triumphs of medical research. As more people are afflicted with diabetes, I am motivated to develop an understanding of diabetes in the hope that I can contribute to the prevention of the complications that accompany this disease and ultimately lead to a cure.