For Lauren Heine, Post-doc Work at Los Alamos is Like Coming Home
By Chuck Carlson
Just 45 minutes from her home in Sante Fe, N.M., Lauren Heine always wondered if, one day, the sprawling Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) might play a role in her career.
And after circuitous journey that began at the University of New Mexico, then to the University of Hawaii, a semester back at UNM and then finally gaining her Bachelor of Science degree at Hawaii, Heine found herself in East Lansing, where she earned her Ph.D. last May in Pharmacology & Toxicology.
Now the journey has come full circle and she is doing her post-doctoral work in the Biochemistry and Biotechnology Division at Los Alamos, one of the world’s largest and most advanced scientific institutions and best known for its development of the atomic bomb.
“This was a post-doc opportunity I was very interested in pursuing,” she said. “It was serendipitous that this position fell into my lap at Los Alamos. While LANL is mostly focused on nuclear programs, they do have a well-rounded, extremely talented group in the Biosciences Division.”
And that’s what Heine is focused on in the Mass Spectrometry Center for Integrated Omics, the study of what makes up multiple layers of a cell and how they respond to environmental toxicants.
Her subject of interest during her time at MSU was learning how crystalline silica, a common mineral smaller than grains of sand and in some cases is produced by crushing stone, can trigger autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
Heine’s graduate laboratories are continuing to research ways to counteract environmentally-triggered autoimmunity and are looking at interventions such as Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil). She recently was the main author of a paper on the topic that also included her MSU co-mentors, Dr. Jack Harkema and Dr. James Pestka. It was also the subject of her dissertation.
Heine said that lupus patients are traditionally prescribed steroids to combat the disease, which unfortunately leads to many unwanted side-effects. If past and future studies prove successful, their group hopes one day Omega 3 supplements could become an adjunct therapy with steroids to reduce unwanted toxicity and improve the quality of life of lupus patients.
“This manuscript adds to what we know about Omega 3 fatty acids,” Heine said. “It’s promising information and builds on the potential of Omega 3 fatty acids being used as an intervention for environmental-triggered lupus, and hopefully it could one day be used in a wider context to treat other autoimmune diseases.”
She is now working on other toxicology-focused projects for her postdoc and credits the work she did at MSU in helping her move forward. And even though she grew up and went to school out West, when her undergraduate mentor at UNM, Dr. Matthew Campen, suggested she look outside the Southwest for a graduate program in Pharmacology & Toxicology, she set her sights on East Lansing.
“I just loved everything about MSU and the Pharm/Tox department,” she said. “It was an easy decision.”
Now as she works on her two-year post-doc, her hope is to continue working in a place she knows so well.
“The transition process at LANL would be from Postdoc to Scientist, and I’d definitely love to stay here and continue to work with this talented group of people,” she said. “But until then I’m going to enjoy this opportunity and learn everything I can during this experience.”