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BGSU photochemical sciences student honored for innovative research into brain cell behavior
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Working in Professor Dr. H. Peter Lu’s lab, Hashini Eheliyagoda's research raises new questions about brain cell dynamics
A Bowling Green State University photochemical sciences student is receiving significant recognition for advanced research that could provide a new understanding of how brain cells communicate with one another.
Hashini Eheliyagoda, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. H. Peter Lu, Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of photochemical sciences at BGSU, studied the effects of the drug methylamphetamine on the plasma membrane of mouse brain cells, finding a disruption that shows an important way that cells communicate.
The drug, which is commercially available in tiny, diluted amounts for scientific study, acted as the catalyst for viewing how small molecules interact with cells to create a ‘leak’ current from the lipid bilayer, an unregulated action still not fully understood by the scientific community.
The work has already received significant acclaim, winning a Best Poster Award at the Ion Channel Modulation Symposium, held last October at Harvard Medical School. As part of the prize, Eheliyagoda was rewarded with an all-expenses-paid trip to Cambridge University in Cambridge, United Kingdom to present her findings later this year.
Though the interaction happens at microscopic levels, Eheliyagoda used correlated patch-clamp electric recording, fluorescence assays and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to view this imperative interaction between a small molecule and the plasma membrane, understanding the experimentally recorded electric signals across the cell membranes under the drug.
“We can’t see what's going on in our cells, but an MD simulation allows us to see what’s actually happening,” she said. “We can simulate experimental conditions in the computer where we program the conditions and ask it to show us what is happening at the molecular level.”
The interaction centers on something scientists still don’t know: when a small molecule like methylamphetamine – which features a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic body – meets the membrane, which is hydrophilic on the outside and hydrophobic on the inside, what drives the interaction?
“The scientific community still doesn’t know how most of the small molecules are behaving with the membrane, which is made up of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts,” Eheliyagoda said. “The small molecules are both hydrophilic and hydrophobic, but we still don’t know the dynamics of how they end up in cells, which is what we’re trying to find out.”
The research is a continuation of the long-standing work done by the renowned Center for Photochemical Sciences at BGSU, which oversees the only photochemical sciences Ph.D. program in the world.
The research found that methylamphetamine accumulated in the lipid bilayer, creating a leak current that shows it’s possible for cells to communicate outside of the ion channels.
“The lipid bilayer plays a role in transmitting signals, not just the ion channels,” Lu said. “The dogma in biology for many years was thinking that the cell communicated with other cells through the biologically regulated pathways, such as the ion channels. But the lipid is very dynamic – they can have a leak signal, and that’s not regulated and often stochastic.”
The research, made possible through the University's affiliation with the Ohio Supercomputer Center, raises new questions about brain cell dynamics.
While scientists have long since known that cells can communicate with one another through the ion channels, understanding how and why a molecule triggers a leak current – and whether it changes the membrane – is largely uncharted territory.
“There are still so many unknown things,” Eheliyagoda said. “What are the mechanisms? How do these molecules behave with the membrane? Are they actually interacting with the lipids? Are they doing something to the membrane? And if the membrane changes, everything changes and everything is affected. That can change the dynamics.”
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Lu and Eheliyagoda are in the process of submitting the research for publication, though the early findings already have drawn interest from the medical community.
That Eheliyagoda completed attention-grabbing research as a graduate student is a testament to her work ethic, Lu said.
“Hashini is really driven and working really hard to drive this project forward to not only do the experiments, but also computer simulations,” Lu said. “She has been able to do both to analyze data, and this has been a pretty significant discovery.”
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Media Contact | Michael Bratton | mbratto@bgsu.edu | 419-372-6349
Updated: 01/30/2025 01:27PM