Biotechnology researcher awarded grant to engineer enzymes
Associate Professor David Ackerley from the School of Biological Sciences has been awarded a grant worth US$1.5 million to develop enzymes that will enable the study of degenerative diseases in zebrafish.
The National Institutes of Health, a biomedical research facility in the United States, awarded the grant to Associate Professor Ackerley and his research partner Jeffrey Mumm, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute and McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“Firstly, my team at Victoria will engineer some enzymes so that they become extremely efficient at activating certain drugs from a non-toxic to a highly toxic form,” says Associate Professor Ackerley. “If these enzymes are present in a living cell, that cell will become highly sensitive to the drugs and die when it encounters them. Importantly, ordinary cells—even those right next to the sensitive cells— will be unaffected.”
The biotechnology researcher will then provide Associate Professor Mumm with a piece of DNA that acts as a blueprint for the engineered enzymes, enabling them to be targeted to any cell type that is desired.
“The original concept for this system was invented by Dr Mumm. It worked fairly well, however our improved enzymes will enable him to far more effectively target certain types of cells in zebrafish, to make those cells sensitive to the drugs,” says Associate Professor Ackerley. “For example, if the enzymes are made only in photoreceptor cells in the retina, application of the drugs will then mimic the effects of degenerative blindness in the zebrafish.”
The processes underlying regeneration or repair of the photoreceptor cells can then be studied, says Associate Professor Ackerley.
“We can screen for new drug candidates that enhance these repair processes. Moreover, the same enzyme tools could be used in a very similar manner in other organs to model other degenerative diseases and to investigate potential cures.”