The first person in the world to clone the BRCA1 gene in cows and describe its actual sequence is Susie Krum, a graduate student in the molecular biology interdepartmental program at UCLA. Her findings were published last fall in Oncogene, the leading journal for research on the genetic components of cancer. She is the article's first author.

As Susie points out, mice are usually the model system used to study human genetics because most mouse genes are about 85% identical to human genes. However, the mouse version of the BRCA1 gene is only about 50% similar to the human gene, which is linked to 5% to 10% of breast cancer cases.

As Susie looked around for something "a little bit closer," she settled on the BRCA1 gene in cows-even though, as she says, "we don't have a lot of cows up here in the laboratory." Not only is the cow gene more similar to the normal human gene, it is nearly identical to the mutated human gene that seems to be related to breast cancer. Thus, by studying the bovine BRCA1, Susie thought she could learn something about the mutation in humans.

"No one knows what the BRCA1 gene does exactly or why it causes breast cancer," she explains. So far, research suggests that BRCA1 in a normal cell either senses or fixes genetic damage to the DNA chain. A second line of research, which examines the interaction of BRCA1 with a protein called RNA polymerase II, seems to be providing more evidence regarding BRCA1's function as a fixer/sensor. That research, which was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in December, will be the subject of her dissertation.

Susie brought her interest in breast cancer research to UCLA from undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, where a bit of serendipity led her to a rewarding avocation. Wanting to go to the Berkeley/Stanford basketball game, Susie and her roommate stood in line for hours, only to have tickets run out two people before them. Disheartened, they were walking away when a policeman directing traffic called out to them: "He said, `You guys didn't get tickets, huh?' and he handed us two tickets-they were front row seats-and said, `Do something good for somebody.'"

Opportunity knocked the next day when Susie picked up a flyer on campus seeking volunteers for a grade school's reading program. It was "kind of a sign that I should do that," she says. In Berkeley, she worked with second graders. Now she spends an hour each week at La Ballona Elementary School in Culver City, helping third graders polish their reading skills. La Ballona has one of the lowest reading scores in the state, but by last spring, all of the students in Susie's class were up to speed.

At UCLA, Susie enjoys working with "a couple of wonderful undergraduates who are helping me in the lab." Asked if there are any common pedagogical threads between third graders and UCLA students, Susie thinks first of "patience," then answers more thoughtfully. "Not assuming that anybody knows a certain thing is good," Susie says. "You have to start from the basics and find out what they know."

Eventually, Susie hopes to find work in a setting that lets her combine research with teaching. First, however, she has a postdoctoral fellowship for work at Harvard University's Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where she'll explore a new area of breast cancer research.

Published in Spring 2004, Graduate Quarterly