John Lee
Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School
Physics, Chemistry, Molecular Research Teacher

The BME Optics Lab emphasizes the use of optical modalities in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. As an introduction to the lab, we went through the laboratory section of the undergraduate optics course. Not having had physics for 25 years, the review of important concepts in optics enabled us to effectively participate in a series of group meetings where a number of research questions were posed and offered as possible avenues of research. From these meetings, I chose to focus on developing an imaging probe that will ultimately enable surgeons to discern between margins of normal versus malignant brain tissue. Presently, the method by which doctors monitor the progress of a patient’s tumor resection is by histological analysis of the tumor margin. The process is not without its deficiencies. To improve on this crucial step of the surgical procedure, the project goal was to use antibodies to that specifically interacted with malignant glioma cells. The idea is to bath the resected area of the brain with the reagent and monitor tumor margins in real time. To provide reporter function, colloidal gold was used to conjugate to commercially acquired anti-sera to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R). We chose colloidal gold, to take advantage of its unique properties when interacting with visible light. Depending on the size of the gold particle, the energy from absorbed light undergoes a Stoke’s shift and emits a well-characterized emission wavelength. The emission output is durable, unlike fluorophores, which are easily quenched. Another advantage of colloidal gold’s emission spectra is that it can be easily distinguished from blood. The conjugation chemistry is straightforward and was completed in two days. At present, experiments are being conducted in glioma cells grown in culture, to assess the feasibility of using the probe during surgery.

In thinking about how, we as teachers could efficiently transfer the content and technology from a research lab project to a high school classroom, we focused on the simple yet important question of, “What is light and how do we harness it for our benefit?” In developing mosaics in chemistry, I feel that the most encompassing subject is the role of our Sun’s radiant energy in affecting the Earth’s climate. I propose to use in my grand challenge question, the recently released movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”.

I would like the students to be able to discern fact from fiction in this very important topic of public policy. In other words, are the sequences of events depicted in the movie scientifically feasible?  By going through the cycle of this mosaic, we will cover a significant number of standards relating to electromagnetic radiation, gases, thermochemistry and molecular geometry.