The game is called Memory. A deck of cards is dealt facedown in a grid, and players take turns flipping over two at a time. The player with the most matching pairs wins.
Unwilling as he is to admit, Alex Blaseio often does win. But how he does it is a much tougher question. The third-year neuroscience student is involved in current research to understand the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and learning center. Nestled in the forebrain, hippocampus neurons communicate by emitting and detecting molecules with tiny sensors called receptors. Dr. Thomas O’Dell’s lab, where Blaseio works, has recently discovered a new way these receptors pick up on molecular signals.
“I’m working with one of the graduate students, and we’re doing research on a novel phosphorylation site on an AMPA receptor,” Blaseio said.
The strategy is like any other when researchers explore a new phenomenon: kill it, and see what happens in its absence. By deliberately introducing an error ““ a “point mutation” ““ into the receptor’s DNA blueprint, Blaseio can then observe the effect on cells producing the malformed protein.
“We have a construct for the GluR1 gene, which codes for a subunit of the AMPA receptor,” said Erin Gray, Blaseio’s mentor and graduate student in neuroscience. “Then we change the amino acid (at the 840th position of the sequence) from threonine to alanine.”
This single modification will cause the receptor site to form incorrectly, so that it can no longer “get the message.” Though Gray has yet to apply the method to actual neurons, she expects the mutation will produce fewer functioning receptors, and hence a weaker signal that makes the neuron less likely to pass on the message.
Unlike many student researchers, Blaseio had only recently begun to explore the field. Having entered UCLA as an English student, he settled on neuroscience after learning about the brain and memory in a life sciences course. But he said the initial learning curve in the lab was steep.
“I remember the first meeting, when they introduced me to all the rigs and procedures, and I was completely lost,” Blaseio said. “(I) didn’t understand every fifth word. Even now when I try to explain it, I might as well be speaking in Chinese.”
As basic research sprints further and further ahead of tangible advances in medical treatment, it can be many years before knowledge can be applied for actual benefit. But Blaseio says he is prepared for this growing disconnect.
“There is this natural curiosity I have, and I’m comfortable with learning for learning’s sake,” he said. “I’m learning in a way that’s way more hands-on than in the classroom. And I found that in this environment I can ask people about how stuff works, and they can answer all of that.”
Though he plans to attend dental school after graduation, the lab experience will prove to be invaluable.
“I think what Alex is doing is great,” O’Dell said. “And it’s good even for people who are going into practice, because you see where all the science stuff is coming from.”
But Blaseio is realistic about the tiny scope of his current research. The brain is a jumble of infinite processes working in concert, and a comprehensive model for memory storage is still years, perhaps even decades, away. As for now, the hippocampus remains largely a mystery.
Besides that, Blaseio’s can score more matching pairs than three opponents combined.