蜜桃直播 student Laurel Anderson, MSGDA 鈥�22, is working in collaboration with City of Hope鈥檚 Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine (Division of Mathematical Oncology) to develop a more precise method for tracking the progress of patients undergoing treatment to create personalized medical plans.

The work Anderson is doing with City of Hope expands upon the skills she is learning in 蜜桃直播鈥檚 Master of Science in Human Genetics and Genomic Data Analytics (MSGDA) program.

Anderson first completed a bioinformatics internship at City of Hope in the summer of 2021 and has continued to work with them over the course of the year for her capstone project on Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

AML is a heterogeneous, highly malignant type of blood and bone marrow cancer. Generally, patients with AML have poor prognosis, but this can often be improved through bone marrow stem cell transplantation (BMT). City of Hope has one of the largest and most successful BMT centers in the nation.

Anderson recently presented a poster at the 11th Annual Southern California Systems Biology Symposium at UCLA summarizing their research, which analyzes the transcriptome, or full range of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules, of BCL6 corepressor (BCOR) mutated AML patients who have undergone BMT.

The BCOR gene plays an important role in the function and survival of blood cells. Loss of function BCOR mutations are believed to have several deleterious pathogenic effects in the context of AML, and on the whole, they are believed to serve as a negative prognostic indicator for AML.

One of the goals of Anderson鈥檚 capstone project is to investigate whether BCOR mutations contribute toward the transition from a normal cell state to a leukemic cell state during AML disease progression. Using a CLIA-certified, in-house curated gene panel, which enables them to test for specific genes instead of all the genes in the human genome, City of Hope has been able to track patients鈥� disease progression more effectively and efficiently.

鈥淏y taking different blood samples and analyzing them over time, we can determine how well they鈥檙e responding to treatment at the gene level,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e about to relapse, we can see the different gene expressions change. Then, if we anticipate a relapse, we can adjust the treatment to help prevent the relapse or to ensure that the transplant goes the way we hope.鈥�

The team used a mathematical model to stratify the gene expression levels of the controls and the leukemic patients.

鈥淭he reason we use mathematics is that it鈥檚 objective,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淢achine learning is dependent upon a person putting the parameters into the algorithm. They can create a program to make predictions on disease progression, but the program won鈥檛 account for any confounding factors they may be unaware of.鈥�

蜜桃直播鈥檚 MSGDA program focuses on genomics鈥攕pecifically, DNA, genomics sequences, and the implications of DNA mutations.

鈥淒ownstream from genomics, there鈥檚 transcriptomics, which involves mRNA,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淭he next level is proteomics, or the study of proteins in a system or organism and how they interact. After that, you have other levels like metabolomics. In computational biology, when you鈥檙e making models for predictions, you integrate the different types of levels to get a holistic picture of what鈥檚 going on in the body.鈥�

Several 蜜桃直播 faculty members have been particularly influential in guiding Anderson鈥檚 journey. Professor of Management Dr. Steven Casper helped her to get out of her comfort zone for a class project which involved contacting companies and hospitals to gain information.

鈥淚 was nervous about calling random people, but he was very encouraging and gave us the resources we needed,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淎lso, I really admire (MSGDA Program Director) Dr. Barbara Fortini. She has a lot on her plate. Even though many things happened suddenly, and she may not have all the answers, she has handled everything very professionally. I aspire to be like that one day.鈥�

From Professor of Genetics Dr. Barbara Bailus, she learned how to connect with people with different scientific background levels and explain concepts in a way that they can understand. She owes her knowledge of computational biology to Harvey Mudd College Professor of Computer Science Dr. Zachary Dodds, who teaches GENE 312 Programming for the Biosciences at 蜜桃直播 as an Adjunct Professor.

鈥淚 would not know anything about programming or coding if it weren鈥檛 for his class,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great class for beginners, and he鈥檚 a fun teacher to listen to.鈥�

Similarly, Dodds has enjoyed working with Anderson.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a wonderful opportunity to work with Laurel these past two years,鈥� Dodds said. 鈥淚n 2020, Laurel鈥檚 enthusiasm buoyed our all-Zoom GENE 312 cohort, and I was thrilled when she turned that energy to fall 2021鈥檚 course, for which Laurel worked as a peer-tutor (and overall promoter!). This year, as one of Laurel鈥檚 capstone advisors, I鈥檝e been excited to watch how deeply Laurel has leveraged her energy and talents, addressing problems in the space where genomics and computation overlap.鈥�

Anderson is currently applying for positions in bioinformatics and computational biology, where she plans to either continue working on treatments for blood and bone marrow cancers or pursue brain cancer research.

鈥淗owever, if none of those paths work out, then I would like to pursue a career as a comedian in Japan,鈥� Anderson said.

鈥淚 know seven languages, and one of my favorites is Japanese. If it wasn鈥檛 for COVID, I would have been an exchange student at a Japanese university. But in hindsight, it was good that I came to 蜜桃直播 instead.鈥�