Work done in the lab of Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
About author
Paras Jain earned his B. Tech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from SRMIST, Katthankulathur, Chennai, before joining the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, IISc as a graduate student in the year 2020 in Dr. Mohit Kumar Jolly’s lab. His research interests currently involve random events and population behavior as seen at the cellular level in biology.
Interview
How would you explain your research outcomes to the non-scientific community?
Cancer is a tough disease to cure because cancer cells have heterogeneous characteristics and show favorable or unfavorable responses to a drug treatment. Cell-to-cell heterogeneity arises as these cells can switch their traits/character either spontaneously or due to environmental influences. Here, we report that when cells multiply by undergoing cell division, random distribution of parental cell resources to its progenies occur. There is a possibility of unequal resources allotment, resulting in progeny inheriting traits different from the parental cell. Specifically, the study reports switching among adhesive vs. migratory characteristics of cancer cells. We obtained these results on translating the operating intracellular and intercellular processes into a mathematical language and solving them in a computer.
How do these findings contribute to your research area?
Firstly, though the origins of heterogeneity in traits among cells have been widely studied in general, how it affects the adhesive vs. migratory traits of cancer cells was less known. Our study provides a potential process behind such observations. Secondly, our results explained the observed experimental switchability between adhesive vs. migratory traits in breast cancer cells (here). Lastly, it was interesting to see how different ways of resource allotment to the progeny can influence adhesive vs. migratory traits (this study, previous study).
“A good working environment, trust, and caring towards colleagues always motivate one to push one’s limit”
What was the exciting moment during your research?
Our ways of scientific pursuit involve knitting together several complex biological phenomenons using simple mathematical terms and solving them to see their collective outcomes. As we better understand biological systems through various experimental studies, our ways of representing them in a quantitative manner through mathematical equations improve and get closer to reality. This evolution is a continuous process, and discussions with colleagues from different fields play a significant role.
What do you hope to do next?
Here, we have focused on the random allotment of resources. However, there are ways in which cells can regulate their resource distribution during division and, therefore, cause intentional switching of traits (here, here). So, the next direction would be to delineate the influence of the regulated and random distribution of resources at cell division.
Where do you seek scientific inspiration from?
My advisor and colleagues at the lab/department always help to engage in scientific discussions, constructively review past work, and think of better ways to fill some existing gaps in understanding. Furthermore, my family has always been a great support and motivates me to take untrodden paths.
Also, a good working environment, trust, and caring towards colleagues always motivate one to push one’s limit.
How do you intend to help Indian science improve?
There is a much-needed requirement of inter-disciplinary research, where people from diverse backgrounds – science, engineering, medical – work together to expand our scientific horizon. I want to contribute to this change.
Further, after joining academia, my peers often engage with me in scientific talks to know what is going on here. Non-academicians often find such conversation an enriching and thought-provoking experience, and some also seek to integrate it with their work/business/lifestyle. Therefore, communicating science is one more aspect that I would like to do.
Reference
Paras Jain, Sugandha Bhatia, Erik W. Thompson and Mohit J Jolly. Population Dynamics of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Heterogeneity in Cancer Cells. Biomolecules 2022, 12(3), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12030348
Edited by: Kshipra S. Kapoor
