By William Merlini
University of Texas at Austin
Hey everyone, my name is William and I am going to be a junior this upcoming fall semester at The University of Texas at Austin! There, I study Biomedical Engineering with a focus in cellular and biomolecular engineering. As of now, I hope to go into cancer research in academia, with plans to pursue a PhD and perhaps even a master’s degree before that. Since I am quite open to going virtually anywhere in the world for my graduate studies, I decided that applying to be a Tyler fellow would be a great idea for me to experience the type of work conducted in a different institution while getting a share of the unique daily life there.
Me on the left and my silly friend on the right!
A bit about me: I am from Corpus Christi, Texas, though I have previously lived for multiple years in Memphis, Tennessee, and was born and raised in the north of Italy. In my free time, I enjoy biking around the city as well as in the countryside, and I greatly enjoy playing a variety of racket sports—including but not limited to tennis, table tennis, badminton, and pickleball. My greatest passion is traveling, especially when it involves international trips and overnight long-haul flights (I genuinely love staring at the in-flight map on my IFE screen for 14 hours!). This passion of mine has even bled over into some of my roommates and friends. If everything works out, I may get to go on a trip with them next year (we’ve had our eyes set on Singapore for a while now…). In fact, it is my goal to always squeeze in at least one international trip every year, whether it be for a short summer vacation or for my educational goals (such as this one!),or both. Of course, traveling in general is rarely an affordable activity, so the biggest obstacle to it is justifying my budget and spending amount.
Thankfully, with generous funding from the Tyler Center for Global Studies, this year I have the privilege of pursuing both my personal passion of traveling as well as my academic passion in cancer research. I will be spending roughly two months of my summer in Heidelberg, Germany, working alongside a PhD student at the German Cancer Research Center (more known as the DKFZ here) on her project, “The Impact of Y Chromosome Loss in a Lung Cancer Mouse Model.”
The front side entrance of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
The process of aging within males often sees their blood cells lose the Y chromosome—a part of their DNA that helps determine male sex. This condition, known as “loss of the Y chromosome” or LOY, has been linked to various health problems like Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and heart conditions. Recently, scientists have also found signs that LOY might play a role in certain cancers, such as prostate and bladder cancer, possibly making them more aggressive and harder for the immune system to fight. However, we still know very little about how LOY might affect lung cancer. This project aims to better understand whether losing the Y chromosome influences how lung cancer develops or spreads. To study this, we will use a specially designed mouse model where we can turn off the Y chromosome only in lung cancer cells. This is done using a tool called CRISPR, which works like molecular scissors to target specific parts of DNA. By doing this, we can observe whether the absence of the Y chromosome changes how lung tumors behave. We’ll also look at specific genes on the Y chromosome—like Kdm5d and Uty—that may have a role in making cancer worse. By turning off these genes one at a time, we hope to find out whether it’s the entire loss of the Y chromosome or just certain key genes that cause these effects.
While cancer research is still fairly new to me, I am excited to be spending my summer here in Heidelberg, as the DKFZ is a leading European research institution, situated with the local university as well as many other important laboratories and research centers. Additionally, with Heidelberg possessing an excellent public transit system, having quite nice weather (for German standards) and being naturally scenic, I personally wish to explore the city as much as I can. Since it is so easy to just take the train and go wherever you’d like, I may even take the time to go on day trips to other German cities if I can!
A photo I took of the Old Bridge and the Heidelberg Castle in the background
HSF House Blogs 