Hey, everyone!
My name is Armani Manov, and I’m a rising sophomore studying Computational Biology in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
I’ve had the opportunity this summer to work with Dr. Wayne Stallaert, where his lab focuses on the study of cell cycle plasticity in human health and disease (www.stallaertlab.com). I joined Dr. Stallaert’s lab in the beginning of my freshman year back in August; now 9 months into my research journey, I certainly don’t regret it.
My project focuses on how the cell cycle is not as straightforward as biology textbooks make it seem. The traditional view of the cycle is a geometrically perfect circle, where the cell prepares for replication in G1, replicates its DNA in S, prepares for division in G2, and finally divides into two daughter cells in mitosis. This layout is certainly a very common approach for observing how our cells divide, but it’s not that quite simple (let’s be honest: nothing in our body is that simple).
Our cells actually follow paths that deviate from the beautiful circle we all know and love. Depending on certain stressors and microenvironment conditions, the cell can actually follow a completely different path, one that is not so modest. This deviation is especially true in cancer biology.
As mentioned before, my project focuses on this deviation, but I’m specifically observing how cancer cells have a different cell cycle compared to their normal counterparts.
How is the cell cycle of a hepatocellular carcinoma cell different or comparable to a normal hepatocyte?
What is a particular medulloblastoma cell’s microenvironment composed of, compared to a normal neuronal cell?
The above questions are two of thousands that this project is looking at. Instead of researching only one type of cancer, I’m cataloging cell cycles from nearly all tissue types and cancers, leading my project to be officially named, “Cataloging Cell Cycles Across All of Human Biology”.
My future plans involve hopeful enrollment into an MD/PhD program where I can further contribute to the medical research I’ve fallen in love with. Initially, my head was set on just going to medical school, but the research that Dr. Stallaert is doing and exposed me to changed my life for the better, motivating me to add a PhD to the end of my name (I never expected to love research this much!).
Fun fact about me: I’m a HUGE foodie. I’ve been to dozens of countries and had a wide variety of different foods, an experience that actually transformed who I am as a person. I’m never giving up this characteristic of mine, and if you want to talk gourmet food, I’m your guy!