Chapter Two: Enter the College Newspaper of Dreams

"Scientists unravel DNA's role in life" 
By Vivekananda Nemana
For the Washington Square News, published on February 5, 2008.

Note: This was the first article I wrote for the Washington Square News before I started staffing there. It got edited the shit out of, but it was my first real journalism experience. Sorry if this is terribly self-indulgent and painful to read. I'll write something a little more interesting as soon as I finish documenting everything I've published. 

Scientists first began mapping DNA in the 1980s to learn more about life's inner workings. 

But to unravel DNA's role in creating life, scientists need to understand how genes help form living organisms - a task undertaken by NYU professors Richard Bonneau and Nitin Baliga. 

The two researchers have mapped the regulatory circuit that controls a tiny organism that can survive in extreme environments, Halobacterium salinarum. The study is part of an emerging field called systems biology, which studies the complex interactions within entire biological systems. 

NYU Professors Richard Bonneau and Nitin Baliga collaborated with
researchers to create a systems biology model (WSN File Photo).

Bonneau is an assistant professor of biology at NYU's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and Baliga is a researcher from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. 

Along with researchers from the University of Maryland, Vanderbilt University and the University of Washington, Bonneau and Baliga studied the control circuit of Halobacterium for over four years. 

They created a model that maps how the organism would adapt when forced into a new environment. In the end, their model accurately predicted how over 85 percent of the genome responded to changes over time, a milestone level of accuracy in predicting cellular changes. 

Unlike older studies that only focus on one gene at a time, systems biology experiments simultaneously monitor all the genes in the genome, an organism's genetic material. This allows researchers to examine the connections between biological control circuits: the interactions among genes that form an organism's biological processes. 

Systems biology is currently examining how genetic building blocks are combined to make the final product - life. 

According to Bonneau, the practical advantage of understanding biological systems is that it opens doors for new forms of bioengineering, such as the biosynthesis of pharmaceuticals and the bioremediation of wastes. 

"In the end, understanding the circuits which control the cell systems and subsystems is a prerequisite for bioengineering," Bonneau said. "Once you figure out the circuit, you can move on to engineer the circuit to produce new things." 

Bonneau is assembling a team of students to work with him during the summer. 

"It's just the beginning," he said. "Working with [Dr. Baliga] has been a great collaboration, and we're going to continue it well into the future."