Any_Voice Vs. Meer Mustafa: Research Associate at the New York Genome Center
Meer Mustafa is one of the few scientists in the world who is researching DNA and the technology that is able to alter the sequence of human genomes. Possibilities are endless and the technology is at a point of conversation where scientists like Meer can begin curing aggressive types of cancer. Meer and his colleague’s research has been shown on the Netflix series Explained, Episode Designer DNA. The show describes a high level synopsis of the lab’s new technology CRISPR/Cas9 and its implications regarding genetic mutation.
A biological engineer who has always been interested in one idea — if every single cell in the human body contains the same exact sequence of DNA, why do cells look and behave so differently? His work deals with the fundaments of creating, developing, and testing tools like CRISPR/Cas9 that break down the sequence of human DNA to reverse engineer and better understand its components. Meer has to understand not only how biology works, but also analyze high-dimensional measurements and configure the insights behind the data. We sit down with Meer for a conversation about his early career, what the heck cancer technology even is, and the future of healthcare.
1. Thanks for having me down at the lab and giving us some insight into your world of science. Currently you are a Researcher exploring mutations in DNA to fight cancer at the New York Genome Center. How did you get into this specific field?
It’s very much my pleasure! I got into the fast-paced world by applying programming to biological questions during grad school at NYU. My mentor, the wonderful Dr. Neville Sanjana, helped me apply genome engineering and big data from cancer cells to find out what makes them tick.
Through techniques like genetic editing & DNA sequencing, I’ve realized how technologic advancements pulled biology into its golden era. I was magnetized to this idea of being a part of this revolution in biology — to understand how the blueprint for life works.
2. In the lab, you mentioned you use CRISPR/Cas9 — a fancy acronym for a tool that edits, copies, and pastes DNA. Can you explain the machine CRISPR/Cas9 and the magnitude it has towards the possibility of curing cancer?
Cancer is a disease of our DNA. It arises when our DNA is so heavily changed from its original sequence that it begins to ignore signals that tell it to stop growing and stop hogging resources like oxygen. CRISPR is quite a simple machine. Bacteria gets attacked by viruses. How do bacteria defend themselves? They evolved an immune system that discriminates DNA that is not its own. They incorporate this foreign DNA into their own to better recognize and destroy the virus’ DNA for the next time the virus visits (spreading and infecting viral DNA is what allows viruses to spread).
It wasn’t until around 2010 that scientists had the idea to put this system into human cells. If you put this system into human cells, the CRISPR system assembles a protein that does the actual DNA cutting and disabling, along with a RNA molecule that acts as a “genome missile” to tell the system where in the DNA to cut. Everything acts the same like in bacteria except now the RNA molecule directs the protein to cut human DNA instead of viral DNA.
Typically, we cannot see how one mutation at one of our 3 billion letter DNA set, our genome, affects how a cell looks and behaves. What if we were able to go through our DNA, one letter at a time, and mutate it? Could we find out what each piece is used for? By being able to artificially mutate individual sites within our genome in the lab, we can observe the responsibility or function that that one site has. In other words, if we change something that we once had, we can tell what its natural function was before it was changed — this essentially helps us find what makes cancer cells tick.
The paradigm of research influencing drugs and knowledge that help humans live better lives is one that is becoming increasingly supported. Healthcare is pivoting around this paradigm. Heavy-hitting companies like Amazon and J.P. Morgan Chase are now taking interest in tapping into this market because they recognize that humans will always need care for their health.
3. Out of your time taking residency at New York Genome Center, what’s the most fascinating thing you’ve seen amongst you or your peers?
I think everyone brings wonderful ideas to the table. I find it interesting how people approach science because it tells a great deal about their personality. Science is extremely boring when it’s done in a vacuum and luckily I work with a fantastic teammate who offers polar opinions (yes, there are opinions in science) to mine and I couldn’t ask for anything better.
4. Ah, yes. That’s always crucial — I think in any field — when you can bounce opinions, feedback and problem areas off one another. Could you describe an average work day/week in the office?
At least once a week, I try to have an undisturbed morning where I put on my headphones and review what I did last week. This, in turn, allows me to plan for the next week and think of long-term ideas that I want to actualize. The rest of the days I typically meet up with my teammate, Bianca, in the morning. And we usually tackle our plans and tasks together or divide and conquer. We perfect protocols, test out new techniques, edit cancer cells’ genomes using CRISPR and countless other methods, all on any given day.
Failing experiments can really take a toll on one’s psyche if not only are you dealt blows, but dealt blows that you must handle alone. This is why we aim to keep everything transparent and build a support system with constant dialogue for troubleshooting.
5. What are the best qualities to have or develop when you research?
Resilience
When I first started out in science, I was terrified of the idea that it takes many drafts to get a polished result. I viewed myself as a perfectionist, and usually would rather not try something new than fail. Luckily, I’ve transformed in this regard and I owe it to training in the scientific field — I can’t count how many times I’ve failed. I learned slowly that failures are as frequent as the sun rising in the morning. More than that, you have to take failure objectively and not emotionally.
Creativity
Often times, there are very dry publications with no off-kilter ideas. The low-hanging fruit. These are usually the ones that don’t make it onto media websites and don’t create a buzz in the public domain. It pays to be creative in this seemingly non-creative field.
Adaptability
Adapting to various scientific principles is essential to becoming unspecialized. Someone has to be able to seamlessly switch from the programming-heavy computational efforts to understanding the chemistry of DNA elongation. They have to be able to look forward and plan for the future, no matter this week’s outcome.
6. What is something that you’re curious about right now outside of your day to day work environment?
Digital currency, universal healthcare, training computers to think like humans, the brain-computer interface!
7. With the way we study medicine, what do you think will change in the upcoming future?
Medicine is one of the reasons so much pain and suffering has vanished. The newest approach to medicine is to take into account a patient’s genomic (all of their DNA) information. Consider this: why is it that two patients with the same type of leukemia that receive the same cancer drug have very different recoveries? The value of knowing what DNA variants can control this outcome is indispensable for creating smarter drugs and plans for any patient.
Imagine a system that demands your genome to be sequenced upon arriving to the hospital so as to better diagnose and treat. With sequencing technologies rapidly declining in price, there’s already an array of personal sequencing companies (Gencove, 23AndMe, Ancestry). As research into this idea progresses, so will the prevalence of sequencing protocols in hospitals and clinics.
8. Can you give us 3 topics that you’d like our audience to look more into when it comes to science?
Local DIY labs — you don’t need to have an idea in mind to go to one of the many cool events happening at these labs. Check out Genspace (https://www.genspace.org/), a lab in Brooklyn that puts on fun events that are the best resource for experiencing science the public (that wants to do more than just read about it) has!
biorxiv.org — a preprint server filled with PDFs of scientific work before publication. You can explore results before they go through peer-review. Often times this contains the first online occurrence of awesome discoveries.
You can go more into New York Genome Center by clicking here.
Thank you for reading our sit down with Meer Mustafa. Any_ is an experience design studio in New York City focusing on digital creative platforms, human experiences, and a curated community. Any_Voice sits on the brink of what’s ahead in technology, design and culture. A platform where we set out to find individuals and topics who are paving the way in society and creation. Log onto weareany.com to contact us or find out more.
