A UAE study putting green algae under the microscope to boost the fight against cancer demonstrates the value of painstaking research when striving for life-saving scientific breakthroughs, experts say.
A dedicated team at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) is exploring how the behaviour of green algae – primitive organisms typically found in bodies of water – can support future treatments for cancers as well as chronic lung disease and reproductive illnesses.
Dr Azam Gholami, an associate professor of physics at NYUAD, is examining the algae’s hair-like protrusions called flagella, only one millionth of a metre in size, that beat in unison to generate the flow of green algae.
Similar bundles of flagella work in some human cells, so studying algal flagella may provide insights into how certain cells, such as cancer cells, move through the human body, potentially leading to new ways to slow the spread of the disease.
"Understanding the cilian flagella dynamics will help to understand how to prevent airway type of diseases in humanity, which raise the chances of getting cancer," Dr Gholami said.
"That will also contribute to, at the end, to cancer research … as the structure of green algae is very similar to those [cells] in our own system, whatever knowledge we gain could also be applicable to humans or animals."
She said understanding the wave patterns of the flagella and way the small hair-like structures function "is very important for human health".
Dr Gholami has put a proposal forward to NYUAD to understand the similarities between green algae and cellular structures within the human brain.
"In our brains we have these ciliary protrusions but it's not quite clear how day and night cycles affect their movement," she said. "We can look at how these ciliary protrusions in green algae react to different kind of signals, like calcium concentrations, or when they are exposed to different light conditions."
Paving the way for prize-winning progress
Breakthroughs in science are often unexpected, with what might seem abstract research sometimes having real-world applications that had not been predicted earlier.
The history of science is replete with cases where insights from basic or fundamental research resulted in advances in fields such as medicine.
Progress in understanding, for example, how genes are regulated or how cells communicate, move and die may result in advances that could save lives or achieve progress in industry.
One of the key cases, said John Oxford, emeritus professor of virology at Queen Mary University of London and co-author of the textbook Human Virology, was seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prof Oxford said the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, billions of doses of which have been administered, were developed because of many years of basic studies on mRNA by researchers, notably Katalin Kariko.
A Hungarian-American biochemist, Ms Kariko had struggled earlier in her career to gain professional recognition for her work on mRNA but she persisted, eventually working in collaboration with a University of Pennsylvania colleague, Drew Weissman.
In 2023 the pair were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine following the success of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.
"That’s a perfect example of a group spending years and years and years looking at mRNA, then it’s transformed to a practical vaccine, which has saved millions of lives," Prof Oxford said.
"You push ahead … and more often than not, something will come of it, perhaps in an unexpected way. Politicians worry about spending money on basic research but there are plenty of examples of how the basic research can transform overnight to a practical project."
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences in the US cites a number of other examples of basic research that has, ultimately, resulted in medical breakthrough.
One of them, the institute outlined in a briefing document, concerns proteasomes, which are complex aggregations of proteins within cells that break down unwanted proteins.
After researchers discovered the existence and function of proteasomes, others in the field developed a drug, bortezomib, that is now used to treat some types of cancer.
Also known as Velcade, it is a proteasome inhibitor that, by preventing them from breaking down unwanted proteins in cancer cells, causes these proteins to build up so that the cells die.
Abu Dhabi study holds promise
Dr Hector H Hernandez, who holds a PhD in chemistry and structural biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologym and owns Tulif Holdings, an agritech company in Abu Dhabi, described Dr Gholami’s research as "really exciting".
"Understanding how cells clear disease can lead to better and more specific therapies," he said. "This could be very impactful for the UAE and GCC. We suffer from asthma and other respiratory disease caused by sand storms and smoking. Understanding how the cells stop clearing diseases can help with the development of better ways to heal people."
Dr Bharat Phankania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Bath Medical School in the UK, described fundamental research and development as "absolutely necessary".
"When you do research and development to understand biological processes, you can also understand how you can overcome erroneous biological processes," he said.
Dr Pankhania said that Crispr, a gene-editing technology that emerged after many years of fundamental research into how genes function and how they can be manipulated, is proving vital in the development of targeted cancer vaccines, which stimulate the recipient’s immune system to attack cancer cells.
He also highlighted how fundamental research could prove useful in fields outside of medicine, such as by giving researchers the genetic tools to develop crops better able to cope with the weather extremes created by climate change.
"If we don’t do research and development into crops that can still grow in very hot places, very wet places … we’ll go without food," he said.
