On the fly: Insects, computer donation boost UNLV gene studies

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

UNLV researchers studying cancer, obesity and human memory are getting a lot of help from the lowly fruit fly -- and a recent donation of computers worth $1.25 million.

Biologists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas recently received 11 high-end computers from the Monsanto Company, which makes the pesticide Roundup and other agricultural products.

The donation will allow researchers to analyze genetic information in just days whereas before it took months. It will also place the university on the cutting edge of genome research, professors said.

"Not many universities in the country have this kind of system," said Jeff Shen, an assistant professor of biology who secured the donation. "This will make us one of the best research centers in terms of power for genome research."

Nicknamed the "fly team," researchers in UNLV's biology department have been studying the fruit fly for five years. While it may seem far-fetched, the genes of humans and those of fruit flies are remarkably similar. Genetic malfunctions in humans can be reproduced in flies and the comparisons can help unlock the door to understanding human disease, researchers said.

"It's like a car," said Andrew Andres, an assistant professor of biology at UNLV. "You can pick up a manual and understand the pieces, but if there are no pictures it will be more difficult. We're at the stage where we have the manual without the pictures. We're trying to figure out what the picture looks like and how the parts work. The computer can help speed that up."

Ever since Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the protein-based, double-helix shape of DNA in 1953, the race has been on to find out how the four building blocks in DNA fall into sequence in humans to make one of 3 billion combinations of genes.

The completion this year of the Human Genome Project, a national scientific effort, marks the end of a 50-year quest to map out the sequencing to all of those genes. With that blueprint in hand, scientists at UNLV are using the information to compare it to organisms such as the fruit fly.

One project using fruit flies at UNLV may answer why some people may be predisposed to obesity.

"We've been able to recognize a gene (in fruit flies) that makes fat cells," said Deborah Hoshizaki, an associate professor of biology. "If we take this gene and (introduce it) in cells that make muscle, they become fat cells."

Hoshizaki said such an ability to manipulate the structure of fat cells in fruit flies can yield valuable information. But comparing information about the subtle differences between fat cells in humans and those in fruit flies was tedious work, she said.

"In the old system, we had to look at one gene at a time and we would have to guess which gene to look at," Hoshizaki said. "Now I can ask: Of all the genes in the genome, which ones are changing?"

The computers came to UNLV after Shen learned that Monsanto was closing a Boston office and planned to sell its computers. Shen, who used to work for the company, talked company officials into donating the computers to UNLV.

Now a team of eight genetic scientists in the biology department will share the new system with researchers in math, physics and chemistry, Shen said.

Shen said high-level genome research should help attract more faculty and better grants. The donation has even sparked high-profile collaborations.

"I gave a presentation last week and talked about the system and now professors at Yale and UCLA are thinking about collaborating with me," Shen said. "The news has traveled really fast."