HOX GENES AND OUR FUTURE

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Understanding how our genes help us develop

Hox genes are the master regulators of embryonic development for all animals, including humans, flies and worms. They decide what body parts go where. Not surprisingly, if something goes wrong with these genes, the results can be disastrous.

In Drosophila, the fruit fly, a Hox mutation can produce profound changes--an extra pair of wings, for example, or a set of legs, instead of antennae, growing from the fly's head.

"The job of the Hox genes is to tell cells early on in embryonic development what to become--whether to make an eye, an antenna or wings," says Robert Drewell, associate professor of biology at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif. "Just a single mutation in the Hox gene can produce these dramatic anomalies."

Humans have Hox genes too. For this reason, Drewell is trying to understand the molecular function of Hox genes in the fruit fly, including what happens when they work properly and what happens when they don't, in order to learn more about their behavior in humans.

Genetically, humans and fruit flies are very much alike; in fact, many known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of the fruit fly. Thus, the information researchers gain from studying flies could provide insights into certain birth defects, such as extra ribs and extra digits, and potentially serious diseases.

"We have exactly the same genes, and use them in exactly the same way," he says. "By understanding them in Drosophila, we can understand them in humans."

Drewell is conducting his research under a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which he received in 2009. The award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education, and research within the context of the mission of their organization. He is receiving about $600,000 over five years.

Hox genes have been entirely conserved throughout animal evolution, meaning "since around 530 million years ago, when many complex animal life forms appeared, they had Hox genes," Drewell says.

Fruit flies are model organisms for studying genetics since they have a short lifespan--several generations can be studied in a matter of weeks--and are small and easy to grow. More importantly, they can provide a wealth of information for computational analysis because scientists have deciphered their entire genetic blueprint.

"We live in this post-genomic era, so we can do comparisons across species to look at exactly how the regulatory regions at Hox genes are changing over time," Drewell says.

Drewell's lab uses several different approaches, applying biology, genetics and computational methods to learn more about the behavior of Hox genes.

"We make what are called 'reporter' genes," he says. "We construct these artificial genes in the lab, then reintroduce them back into Drosophila. This allows us to measure what is happening to those genes. The genes we are putting in are combinations of fragments from Hox genes--different DNA regions--and we are testing if these different regions are responsible for regulating when and where the Hox gene is turned on and off."

Through their experiments, "We can look at what genes are turned on and off, and can detect exactly which DNA elements regulate the process, and how they regulate it."

Because the fruit fly's genome is available, "we are able to do comparisons across species to look at exactly how these regulatory regions are changing over time," using computational biology methods, he says. Moreover, "through that process, we can essentially start to get a handle on the role that Hox genes play in controlling cell identify in the developing embryo. We can do this in all animals, including humans."

The educational component of his CAREER grant has allowed Drewell to incorporate new elements to the curriculum, including mathematical and computational approaches, and provides undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research that typically would not be available to them.

"Harvey Mudd doesn't have a graduate program, so all the research, essentially, is done by undergraduates," Drewell says. "They get an opportunity to do something they might not otherwise get to do. Each student is fully encouraged to take ownership of his or her own project. In this way, this often exposes them to a research field for the very first time and establishes a great foundation for their future endeavors in research."

-- Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation

THE CRITICAL NEED FOR CYBER AIRMAN-DEVELOPMENT

Chief Master Sgt. Linus Jordan, Air Force Space Command, Command Chief, discusses the role of Airmen as a strategically critical professional Cyber force for the nation during a panel discussion at Cyber 3.1 in Colorado Springs, Monday. Air Force photo by Duncan Wood
　

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND
Cyber Airman-development strategically critical to the nation
by Senior Master Sgt. Dean J. Miller
Air Force Space Command Public Affairs

4/9/2013 - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Cyber Airman development became the focus of discussion at Cyber 1.3 in Colorado Springs Monday as Chief Master Sgt. Linus Jordan, Command Chief, Air Force Space Command, addressed space and cyber industry leaders at the conference prior to official opening of the 29th National Space Symposium.

Chief Jordan and a civilian aerospace leader were participants in a moderated panel discussion that encouraged audience participation via e-mail. The interactive forum quickly moved through topics including youth interest in an evolving cyber culture, common talent pool recruitment considerations, challenges of long-term development of a professional cyber force, and the critical roles of cyber-trained Airmen.

Chief Jordan, invested in developing cyber Airmen both as command chief for the Air Force major command responsible for the cyber mission and as a father of an Airman in the cyber operations career field, challenged common assumptions that people fall into only the popular categories of digital native or digital immigrant. Chief Jordan offered a third category: the digitally disadvantaged.

"There are demographics in our country where young people, or people of any age, may not have had the opportunity - educationally or economically - to be exposed to technology...to have the opportunity to use and leverage technology," said Chief Jordan. "Just because someone was born into an era, doesn't mean they experienced what that era was all about."

Before cyber professionals, Airmen or civilians, can be recruited and developed, young people must be aware of, interested in and somewhat familiar with the cyber culture. Chief Jordan emphasized the need for a national focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, citing Air Force support of the annual CyberPatriot competition as an example of a positive experience in STEM areas. CyberPatriot is a national high school cyber defense competition designed to inspire high school students to aspire to STEM degrees and cybersecurity careers.

"There is goodness in that type of program (CyberPatriot) for those young Americans, whether they join our team or not, because it exposes them to what the opportunities of the future may be," Chief Jordan said. "More importantly, it reinforces just how critically important STEM is to them as individuals and to us as a nation."

The panelists took questions during the session and one participant asked, "If the demands of the cyber domain are so different compared to traditional military domains, does application of traditional military standards still make sense?". Chief Jordan was quick to respond.

"Airmen are Airmen first. Just like Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, they are military professionals first, regardless of their technical discipline and expertise -- especially in an environment as complex as cyber is for us today. We have to have professionals who are trained to a common level of discipline, standards, understanding and behavior before we can entrust them with the responsibilities and authorities that we do, in an environment as dynamic and complex as cyber," said Chief Jordan.

"The last thing you want is someone who does not have that standard grounding to operate autonomously in that mission area. It can very quickly have national security-level implications. Given our current workforce, we entrust our most junior enlisted Airmen and our most junior company grade officers with some pretty significant responsibilities in this mission area," said Chief Jordan. "Without that fundamental thread of training, discipline, and standards that runs through every Airman, we set ourselves up for failure. Cyber is one of those areas that changes too quickly, is too important and too pervasive to take chances with."

Another question from the panel was about developing the culture and making the mission area 'fun'. Chief Jordan was less interested in making Cyber appear fun than he was about inspiring a sense of service in current and future cyber Airmen, based on the satisfaction they get from positively impacting operations from the tactical to strategic and national levels every day. This led to an opportunity for Chief Jordan to expand on the role of Cyber Airmen deployed to the Combatant Commands.

"These Americans are warriors. Though they may typically serve in an operations center, or some other obscure location, at the end of the day, they are as prone to deploy into harm's way to support national security as anyone else," said Chief Jordan. "As the Combatant Commands around the world continue to learn what cyber warriors bring to the fight, we see more and more requests for forces placing cyber Airmen 'boots on ground' to support combatant commanders. When we talk about cyber and space warriors, we cannot allow ourselves to think that these are Airmen 'removed from the fight'. Regardless of where they sit, more important than anything, are the capabilities that these professionals bring to bear in execution of national security."