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Janet Iwasa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Janet Iwasa is an American data visualization expert and assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah.[1]

YouTube Encyclopedic

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  • Why it’s so hard to cure HIV/AIDS - Janet Iwasa
  • Vitae Vignettes: Janet Iwasa, PhD - Animating the Invisible
  • Janet Iwasa (Harvard): Animating Cell Biology

Transcription

In 2008, something incredible happened: a man was cured of HIV. In over 70 million HIV cases, that was a first and, so far, a last. We don't yet understand exactly how he was cured.` We can cure people of various diseases, such as malaria and hepatitis C, so why can't we cure HIV? Well, first let's examine how HIV infects people and progresses into AIDS. HIV spreads through exchanges of bodily fluids. Unprotected sex and contaminated needles are the leading cause of transmission. It, fortunately, cannot spread through air, water, or casual contact. Individuals of any age, sexual orientation, gender and race can contract HIV. Once inside the body, HIV infects cells that are part of the immune system. It particularly targets helper T cells, which help defend the body against bacterial and fungal infections. HIV is a retrovirus, which means it can write its genetic code into the genome of infected cells, co-opting them into making more copies of itself. During the first stage of HIV infection, the virus replicates within helper T cells, destroying many of them in the process. During this stage, patients often experience flu-like symptoms, but are typically not yet in mortal danger. However, for a period ranging from a few months to several years, during which time the patient may look and feel completely healthy, the virus continues to replicate and destroy T cells. When T cell counts drop too low, patients are in serious danger of contracting deadly infections that healthy immune systems can normally handle. This stage of HIV infection is known as AIDS. The good news is there are drugs that are highly effective at managing levels of HIV and preventing T cell counts from getting low enough for the disease to progress to AIDS. With antiretroviral therapy, most HIV-positive people can expect to live long and healthy lives, and are much less likely to infect others. However, there are two major catches. One is that HIV-positive patients must keep taking their drugs for the rest of their lives. Without them, the virus can make a deadly comeback. So, how do these drugs work? The most commonly prescribed ones prevent the viral genome from being copied and incorporated into a host cell's DNA. Other drugs prevent the virus from maturing or assembling, causing HIV to be unable to infect new cells in the body. But HIV hides out somewhere our current drugs cannot reach it: inside the DNA of healthy T cells. Most T cells die shortly after being infected with HIV. But in a tiny percentage, the instructions for building more HIV viruses lies dormant, sometimes for years. So even if we could wipe out every HIV virus from an infected person's body, one of those T cells could activate and start spreading the virus again. The other major catch is that not everyone in the world has access to the therapies that could save their lives. In Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for over 70% of HIV patients worldwide, antiretrovirals reached only about one in three HIV-positive patients in 2012. There is no easy answer to this problem. A mix of political, economic and cultural barriers makes effective prevention and treatment difficult. And even in the U.S., HIV still claims more than 10,000 lives per year. However, there is ample cause for hope. Researchers may be closer than ever to developing a true cure. One research approach involves using a drug to activate all cells harboring the HIV genetic information. This would both destroy those cells and flush the virus out into the open, where our current drugs are effective. Another is looking to use genetic tools to cut the HIV DNA out of cells genomes altogether. And while one cure out of 70 million cases may seem like terrible odds, one is immeasurably better than zero. We now know that a cure is possible, and that may give us what we need to beat HIV for good.

Early life and education

In 1978, Janet Iwasa was born to parents Mikeko and Kuni Iwasa in Bloomington, Indiana. She was the youngest of three children.[2] Following her father joining the National Institutes of Health, she moved, with her family, to Maryland.[3][4] She later went on to participate in an internship at the Institute for Genomic Research.[3]

In 1999, she graduated with great honor from Williams College with bachelor's degrees in Biology and Asian Studies.[5] In her junior year at Williams, she worked alongside Professor Robert Savage, studying the formation of segmented patterns in leeches on a cellular level.[6] In 2006, Iwasa obtained a PhD in cell biology at the University of California in San Francisco. She wrote her doctoral thesis on the topic of actin networks.[7]

After watching a molecular animation by Graham Johnson, she began to pursue 3D animation. She began taking animation classes at San Francisco State University.[3][8] After graduation, she studied animation at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, California; she was the only woman in her class. She applied her skills in animation to biology, using 3D animation as a means to visualize cellular functions and interactions.[3]

Career and research

In 2006, Iwasa began working as a postdoctoral fellow under Jack Szostak with Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital.[5][9] In 2007, Iwasa worked as a teaching assistant at Harvard Medical School, in the "Visualizing Molecular Processes with Maya" course.[5] She also worked with MASSIVE, adapting the visual effects software to depict processes of nucleation elongation.[4]

In 2008, Iwasa created illustrations and animations for a multimedia exhibit for the Boston Museum of Science titled Exploring Life's Origins.[10]

In 2008, she became a lecturer in Molecular Visualization for the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.[5] Her work with Joan Brugge and Michael Overholtzer furthered her understanding of a newly discovered cellular process called endosis. Iwasa worked alongside researchers at the university to investigate the process.[4]

While working with Tomas Kirchausen, she created an animation on clathrin-mediated endocytosis, researching how clathrin triskelions operated and assembled on the inner surface of the plasma membrane to invaginate an extracellular particle.[4][8]

In 2010, Iwasa organized and taught a course on visualizing molecular and cellular processes with 3D animation in Porto, Portugal.[11] In 2013, she joined the University of Utah School of Medicine as a research assistant professor for the Department of Cell Biology. She returned to Portugal in 2014 to teach a 3D animation workshop for scientific animation.[5] In 2014, she also completed a project called Molecular Flipbook,[12] a free, open-source software program designed to animate molecules. In 2016, Iwasa released a life-cycle animation on HIV. Her project used animation to illustrate the molecular mechanisms the virus utilizes to enter into and exit target cells.[13][8]

Iwasa is a TED senior fellow, and has spoken about animation in molecular biology at both TED and TEDx conferences. She has also contributed to TED-Ed.[14][15]

Publications

Iwasa's work has been published in scientific journals including Nature, Science, and Cell, as well as the New York Times.[16][17]

Iwasa's knowledge of cellular animation has also led her to publish several different works of scientific literature. Her work with Robert Savage's Lab led to her first publication in 1999 in Development Genes and Evolution, "The leech hunchback protein is expressed in the epithelium and CNS but not in the segmental precursor lineages", with co-authors Suver and Savage.[18] Iwasa's work with Savage focused on identifying regulatory genes engaged in the formation of segment patterns in annelids, investigating a gene in leeches called Leech Zinc Finger II (LZF2), considered to be an orthologue of the hunchback (hb) gene in Drosophila. Iwasa, Savage, and Suver concluded that LZF2 likely plays an important part in the morphological progressions of gastrulation and the specification of the central nervous system in leeches but does not contribute to the formation of anteroposterior patterns.[18]

In 2007, she published an article on her research at the University of California with Mullins, "Spatial and temporal relationships between actin-filament nucleation, capping, and disassembly."[19] Her study with Mullins focused on the lamellipodial network. They concluded that the lamellipodial network incorporates the Arp 2/3 complex and capping proteins during initial assembly, but dismisses these complexes long before the lamellipodial network is actually disassembled. They also reported that the network does not use cofilin, twinfilin, and tropomyosin in assembly. Instead, these factors play a role in the network's size.[19]

In 2010, she published "Animating the model figure" in Trends in Cell Biology.[20] In this article, she points out the importance of animations in revealing and teaching scientific concepts, explaining that students are shown to retain more information and show more interest in the material when animations are incorporated into the curriculum. She also pushed the invention of animation software engineered exclusively for the scientific research community.[20]

In 2015, Iwasa and Wallace Marshal co-authored Karp's Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments by Gerald Karp.[21]

In 2016, Iwasa published "The Scientist as Illustrator" in Trends in Immunology, in which she describes the role of animation in science and discusses the importance of visualization.[22]

Recognition and honors

From 1999 to 2004, Iwasa was honoured as a member of the NSF Graduate Fellowship. From 2006 to 2008, she was a member of the NSF Discpery Corps Postgraduate Fellowship.[5] In 2008, she earned an honourable mention for her entry into the AAAS International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. In 2012, she was listed as one of Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People."[5][23] In 2014, she was recognized as a TED Fellow, a FASEB BioArt Winner, and one of Foreign Policy Magazine's "100 Leading Global Thinkers."[5][24][25] In 2016, the University of Utah credited Iwasa as an Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholar. In 2017, she was honoured as a TED Senior Fellow.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Janet Iwasa | School of Medicine". medicine.utah.edu. 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  2. ^ Iwasa, Janet (2020). Karp's Cell and Molecular Biology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. ISBN 978-1119598244.
  3. ^ a b c d Reynolds, Sharon. "Meeting Janet Iwasa". Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  4. ^ a b c d Fleichman, John (February 2009). "ASCB Profile: Janet Iwasa" (PDF). ASCB Newsletter: 39–41. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Janet Iwasa, Ph.D., University of Utah, Curriculum Vita
  6. ^ rpsci98 - BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, https://science.williams.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/72/files/RS98html/RepSci98Web-BIOLOGY.html.
  7. ^ Iwasa, Janet (June 21, 2006). "Spatial and Temporal Relationships between Actin-Filament Nucleation, Capping, and Disassembly" (PDF). Cell. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Iwasa, Janet H. "Crafting a Career in Molecular Animation." Molecular Biology of the Cell, vol. 25, no. 19, 29 Oct. 2014, pp. 2891–2893. NCBI, doi:10.1091/mbc.e14-01-0699.
  9. ^ "Szostak Lab: Former Post-Doctoral Fellows". Molecular Biology. Harvard Medical School. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  10. ^ "About the Exploring Origins Project". Exploring Life's Origins.
  11. ^ "News — The Animation Lab". The Animation Lab. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  12. ^ "Molecular Flipbook".
  13. ^ Iwasa, Janet. "Visualizing HIV Entry and Egress."
  14. ^ Iwasa, Janet. "Janet Iwasa | Speaker | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  15. ^ Iwasa, Janet (2017-09-07), Why it's so hard to cure HIV/AIDS, retrieved 2024-02-05
  16. ^ Olsen, Erik (15 November 2010). "Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  17. ^ "Janet Iwasa". Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers. PBS. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  18. ^ a b Iwasa, J. H, et al. "The Leech Hunchback Protein Is Expressed in the Epithelium and CNS but Not in the Segmental Precursor Lineages." Development Genes and Evolution, vol. 210, no. 6, 19 May 2000, pp. 277–288. Springer Nature , doi:10.1007/s004270050315.
  19. ^ a b Iwasa JH, Mullins RD. Spatial and temporal relationships between actin-filament nucleation, capping, and disassembly. Curr Biol. 2007 Mar 6; 17(5):395-406
  20. ^ a b Iwasa JH (2010). Animating the model figure. Trends Cell Biol, 20(12), 699-704.
  21. ^ Iwasa, JH and Marshall, W (December 2015). Karp's Cell Biology: Concepts and Experiments (8). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
  22. ^ Iwasa JH (2016). "The Scientist as Illustrator". Trends Immunol, 37(4), 247-50.
  23. ^ Cain, Patrick (27 April 2012). "100 Most Creative People: 25. Janet Iwasa". Fast Company. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  24. ^ "Janet Iwasa". TED Speakers. TED.com. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  25. ^ "Foreign Policy Unveils Sixth Annual "100 Leading Global Thinkers" Issue". Foreign Policy Group. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2017.

External links

This page was last edited on 5 February 2024, at 20:07
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