Winner of Science for All

A presentation on how stem cells could in time provide an answer to Parkinson's disease has captured the inaugural Science for All competition at University College Cork.

Department of anatomy/neuroscience student Katie Spitere claimed the top prize, with Suzanne Floyd of the biochemistry department the runner-up.

Science for All requires PhD students to make a 15-minute public presentation on their research work. The real challenge is to do so using ordinary language and without recourse to the jargon of science.

The judging panel chaired by RTÉ Cork's Jennie O'Sullivan was full of praise for Spitere's talk last week, which described her efforts to encourage stem cells to change into the cells destroyed by Parkinson's disease. Her award included an iPod and a certificate.

Her department forms part of the new UCC BioSciences Research Institute and her research work is funded by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology. She chose the subject after her supervisor, Dr Aideen Sullivan, suggested a study of how rat embryonic stem cells could be encouraged to differentiate into dopamine neurons, the cells that go missing in Parkinson's.

"We are using neural stem cells to generate dopamine neurons in the lab," she says. Parkinson's is a severe neurodegenerative disorder that affects about 1 per cent of the population over 65, Spitere explains. Cells are lost in particular in the brain structures associated with coordination and movement, in turn leading to loss of muscle control in Parkinson's patients.

The first challenge is to keep the stem cells alive, she says. "We can keep them going along in culture for five or six weeks," says Spitere. The more formidable follow on is to identify how to make them change into the desired dopamine neurons.

In vivo the body produces the growth and signalling factors it needs to cause this differentiation, but the biochemical process is very complex, says Spitere. "We looked at the factors that were important in the development of dopamine neurons in the embryo. In part it was guess work."

Some of the factors were known, she says, including one called FGF-8 and the exotically named "Sonic Hedgehog". She found others and eventually succeeded in getting the stem cells grown in solution to differentiate into dopamine neurons.

A great deal remains to be done however before scientists can develop a response to Parkinson's. "We still have to look into a way of isolating the neurons," says Spitere.

They grow in conjunction with other brain cells but only the dopamine neurons are needed. One possible extraction method involves attaching a magnetic bead to each cell using antibodies and then using "magnetic immuno-selection" to isolate them, she says.

Another difficulty will be to get the immature neurons to behave fully like mature neurons, says Spitere, "to integrate the mature neurons into the (brain) circuitry".

Neurons position themselves and then connect with one another. The trick will be to ensure the neurons introduced to treat Parkinson's achieve this essential function.

Spitere found the competition a challenge. "Oh God, yeah, very nerve-wracking." She expects to finish her PhD next autumn and is considering what to do afterwards.