***** Vol.4 Chap.14 New research frontier *****
With that referral, JB went back to her office and immediately phone Dr. Tularish.
“Dr. Tularish?”
“Yes?”
“This is Dr. Smith from the Department of Computer Science. I was wondering if I can take a few minutes of your time and come and talk to you about an extension to our current research project with Dr. Margaret Tomash?”
“Sure, I am always open to collaboration on research projects.”
“Great, what would be a good time to come and visit your office?”
“Let me see, how about this Friday at 2:00 pm?”
“No problem. I do not have class at that time. I will be there.”
“Okay, see you then.”
JB was feeling happy. It seemed another cog on the wheel was falling into place. So, on Friday, she took a few published papers with her and headed to Dr. Tularish’s office arriving on time and was shown into a small office.
“Dr. Tularish? I am JB. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
“Call me Kendall. What do you have there under your arm? A stack of publications?”
“Yes, these are my publications on the subject that I wanted to talk to you about. I just want to give you these reprints so that you know we had results.”
“Sounds good. Tell me what you have in mind.”
She then explained to Kendall regarding her work with decoding the human genome and that in recent months, a direct correlation between multiple chromosome segments with identifiable violent tendencies was found. She then briefly went over the papers published or soon to be published regarding this part of the research. Of course, all the papers had JB’s name as the first author.
“Very impressive. Have you tried out this classification on other datasets?” Kendall responded.
“Yes, I have found the classification to hold up with other datasets.”
“Okay, I am convinced. You have been working with Dr. Tomash. She is a great researcher in genetics. But why are you coming to me? I don’t know anything about genetics.”
“Kendall, I know there is a link between the genome and the observed behavior. But I want to go further. I am not happy with just the discovery of a relationship. I want to find out what is the exact mechanism between the DNA coding and the observed behavior.”
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Kendall sat back and took a long look at JB. “That is a question that all of us researchers at the medical school want to find out. You are not the only one.”
“Perhaps with the tools that I have, we can push our knowledge further? How can I help?” JB responded humbly.
Kendall then explained in layman’s term the field of endocrinology. He explained to JB that the genome is merely a coding, a very sophisticated coding, not so much in the encoding, but in the effects as a result of that coding. Then he explained about RNA, protein, enzymes, hormones, etc. in great details to JB who was thoroughly lost by the end of that brief talk.
Finally, JB held up her hand. “Can I ask a simple question?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“You say our body basically runs on hormones?”
“Yes. For example, adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal medulla gland when the body needs an energy boost. While adrenaline does not directly produce energy, an increase in adrenaline causes the body to increase the production of energy.”
“I see.”
“Is it possible that there are some hormones that would affect a person’s aggressive behavior?” JB thought she may really be onto something here.
“Possible.”
“Okay, I don’t think I need to know how the DNA expressed leads to the production of some hormones. But do we know what hormones could be related to aggressive behavior?”
“I don’t have a ready answer for you today. But let me do some search in the literature and see if I can come up with anything?”
“Well, if we can identify the ‘hormones’ that you say is related to aggression, perhaps my program can verify the correlation between the genetic makeup and the presence of those ‘hormones’?”
“That is a thought. The only kicker is we do not know what hormones we are looking for. There are thousands of proteins and hormones circulating in a human body. We only know a few of them like adrenaline and its effects. A majority of the hormones purcolating through our bodies are still a mystery to us.”
“How does one identify the presence of certain protein?”
“The most common usage is the mass spectrometer which gives the intensity based on the mass to charge ratio. By knowing the protein structure, we can infer the pattern based on the molecular structure.”
JB sat silently for a moment.
Then she said slowly while still in deep thought, “I only need to know if there is a way to tell the difference between the docile group and the violent group. Since I am only a computer scientist, what is of interest is a viable way to differentiate between the two groups, a difference in the pattern between these two groups using observable parameters like the mass spectrometer readings that you mentioned earlier?”
JB continued, “As to what that difference is, that is less of a concern to me if I can capitalize on that difference and separate the two groups of subjects. Any observable difference could be a hint for the medical researchers like yourself to figure out what is the protein or hormone that is causing the difference and how that protein is generated by the DNA. But in the meantime, I am less interested in the process than in the end results.”
JB was really going now.
It was Kendall’s turn to sit in silence steeped in his thought.
After a long while, Kendall began to respond. “I suppose it is possible if we have the mass spectrometer readings of those two groups of subjects, then we can try out your classification technique. It would not be easy. There are different mass spectrometer readings, starting from low atomic weight readings. In other words, we need to narrow down the area of the spectrum where such hormone, if it exists, would lie.”
“Let me work on that. Since I got the genetic data for those two groups of subjects, perhaps I can ask my source to also get me the mass spectrometer data for the same two groups of subjects.”
JB’s face lit up.
“Go for it.”
“Well, it has been very enlightening talking to you, Kendall. I look forward to further collaboration with you.”
“Likewise.”
With that, JB was gone. As soon as she was back in her office, she placed a phone call to Dr. Jim Lovelace, who supplied her with the DNA data in the first place. Jim agreed to do what he can. With that, all JB could do was to wait for the data to arrive.