{"id":2638,"date":"2017-12-08T20:40:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T20:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biology-dev.mit.edu\/?page_id=2638"},"modified":"2022-03-12T16:10:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T21:10:28","slug":"profile-faye-marie-vassel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/biology.mit.edu\/graduate\/why-mit-biology\/graduate-testimonials\/profile-faye-marie-vassel\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile: Faye-Marie Vassel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Combatting chemotherapy resistance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Faye<\/p>\n

Graduate student Faye-Marie Vassel investigates a protein that helps cells tolerate DNA damage, sharing her expertise with budding scientists to further STEM education.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Raleigh McElvery<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Faye-Marie Vassel has a protein. Well, as a living entity, technically she has many, but just one she affectionately refers to as her own. \u201cMy protein, REV7.\u201d And it makes sense \u2014 if you were hard at work characterizing a single protein for all six years of your graduate career, you\u2019d be pretty attached, too. Plus, the stakes are high. REV7, which aids in DNA damage repair, could ultimately provide insight into ways to combat chemotherapy resistance.<\/p>\n

Although Vassel\u2019s mother trained as an OB\/GYN in Russia before moving to the U.S., serving as what Vassel describes as a \u201cquiet\u201d scientific role model, Vassel spent her early childhood emulating her father, a social worker, and engrossed in the social sciences. She intended to one day work in science policy \u2014 until high school when she joined an after-school program at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and discovered an additional interest.<\/p>\n

Here, Vassel took a series of molecular biology classes and met her first female research mentor, a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, who encouraged her to participate in another, more advanced science program funded by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially had my doubts, but just having that support changed everything,\u201d Vassel says. \u201cThat was my first time doing research of any kind, and I got a sense of the sheer diversity of potential research projects. That\u2019s also when I heard there was something called biophysics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scientific
REV7 (shown in purple) is a structural subunit of one key translesion polymerase, which aids in DNA damage repair. This image was originally published in Jessica Wojtaszek et al. Structural Basis of Rev1-mediated Assembly of a Quaternary Vertebrate Translesion Polymerase Complex Consisting of Rev1, Heterodimeric Polymerase (Pol) \u03b6, and Pol \u03ba. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2012; 287: 33836-33846. \u00a9 the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From that point on, Vassel was hooked. As an undergraduate at Stony Brook University, she initially declared a major in physics before switching to biochemistry. Later, when it came time to select a graduate school, she was split between MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. As she recalls, MIT\u2019s graduate preview weekend made all the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the chance to stay with biology students and speak with professors,\u201d she says. \u201cThe whole experience made the department seem personal, and demystified the graduate school process by making it more tangible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She proposed a joint position between two labs: Graham Walker<\/a>\u2019s lab, based in Building 68, and Michael Hemann<\/a>\u2019s lab situated in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Walker\u2019s lab focuses on microbiology, DNA repair, and antibiotic resistance, while Hemann\u2019s lab investigates chemotherapy resistance in hopes of improving cancer therapies. After stumbling upon one of their joint papers<\/a>, Vassel decided she\u2019d like to combine the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s invaluable to have both perspectives,\u201d she says. \u201cMike’s lab<\/a> just celebrated its 10th anniversary, while Graham’s<\/a>\u00a0just had its 35th. It’s been interesting seeing the different ways they approach their respective research questions, because they were trained in such different scientific eras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Vassel is currently the only student formally working in both labs, the collaboration between Walker and Hemann, aimed at combatting chemotherapy resistance, has been ongoing.<\/p>\n

Frontline chemotherapies, including one anticancer agent called cisplatin, kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA and preventing them from synthesizing new genetic material. Just how sensitive cancer cells are to cisplatin \u2014 and therefore how effective the treatment is \u2014 depends on whether the cell can repair the damage and bypass DNA-damage induced cell death. In some cases, cells increase production of \u201ctranslesion polymerases,\u201d which are specialized DNA polymerases that can help cells tolerate certain kinds of DNA damage by synthesizing across from damaged DNA or DNA bound to a carcinogen.<\/p>\n

Vassel\u2019s protein, REV7, is a structural subunit of one key translesion polymerase, and its expression is deregulated in many different cancer cells. As Vassel suggests, if one aspect of these translesion polymerases \u2014 say, the REV7 subunit \u2014 could be altered to hinder repair, then perhaps cancer-ridden cells could regain drug sensitivity.<\/p>\n

\"Person<\/p>\n

Thanks to\u00a0recently-developed\u00a0CRISPR-Cas9\u00a0gene editing techniques, Vassel has removed REV7 entirely from drug resistant lung cancer cells,\u00a0<\/em>and watched as cisplatin sensitivity was restored. She also conducted rescue experiments, adding REV7 back into cell lines lacking the protein to see whether those cells become resistant to the drug once again. Most recently, she has been working in murine models to see whether REV7 has similar effects in a living system.<\/p>\n

If her hypothesis is correct, REV7 would be a powerful target for drug development. Treatments that inhibit REV7, she explains, could be used in tandem with frontline chemotherapies like cisplatin to prevent resistance.<\/p>\n

Since her foray into biology at the American Museum of Natural History almost a decade ago, Vassel has maintained her passion for science outreach. During her time at MIT, she has served as a math tutor for middle schoolers in the Cambridge public school system. She also volunteered as a science and math mentor for high school students, as part of a dual athletic and academic program<\/a> founded by MIT.<\/p>\n

As Vassel wraps up her final year of graduate studies, she is torn between completing an academic postdoc and indulging her early interest in science education policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in New York City, it was not lost on me that \u2014 despite the city\u2019s wonderful diversity \u2014 people from historically underserved groups were still missing from many science-related positions,\u201d Vassel says. \u201cIt got me thinking about the dire need for policymakers to improve curricula to make science more inclusive of all life experiences. There\u2019s this idea that science is apolitical when it\u2019s really not, and that mindset can have detrimental effects on equity and diversity in science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Raleigh McElvery
\nPosted: 12.9.17<\/h5>\n

Why MIT Biology?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combatting chemotherapy resistance Graduate student Faye-Marie Vassel investigates a protein that helps cells tolerate DNA damage, sharing her expertise with budding scientists to further STEM education. Raleigh McElvery   Faye-Marie Vassel has a protein. 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