Emily Mitchell - Interview Reflection 3/21/2012

1. Describe your feelings about or response to the interview.

I really enjoyed talking to Dr. Weinstein, and I thought the interview went very well. He was very helpful and although he had never heard of grid computing, he was enthusiastic to learn about it and contribute. As a neurologist, I knew he would have a background in diseases like Parkinson's, but I found that he had such a large amount of knowledge about Parkinson's and really enjoyed learning new things about the disease.

2. What changes occurred for you as a result of your interview?

Dr. Weinstein talked a lot about how much the increase in the average lifespan has an effect on neurological diseases like Parkinson's disease.  He explained to us that as we age, the frequency of disease due to protein misfolding increases, and so there is a higher prevalence of people with diseases like Parkinson's. I had never considered this, but it made me realize just how much each generation changes major health concerns. This also made me think about how medicine has to change with each generation depending on other factors such as lifestyle, lifespan, etc.

3. Did anything about the interview disturb you?

The thing that disturbed me during the interview was how misinformed the public is about diseases. Dr. Weinstein said that a lot of people he has come into contact with have a misconstrued idea about the cause of neurological diseases, which prevents them from being able to take preventive measures.  I think this is a major concern, especially because there is probably a higher percentage of people with neurological diseases such as type II diabetes, and there are ways to help prevent them if the public is well-informed.

4. Describe the connections you found between the interview and your research & classwork.

There were a lot of connections between the interview and our classwork, both on a molecular and population level. The mutations and protein misfoldings that lead to neurological disease had a lot to do with what we had studied in class about mutations and their effect on a population. It also made me consider how although protein misfoldings linked with Parkinson's and some other neurological diseases occur after reproductive age, there are probably some diseases, perhaps type II diabetes, in which mutations and protein misfoldings occur during reproductive age. If this is the case, this could have a huge effect on the population. This relates to our discussions in class about population genetics and the effects of microevolution on a population.

Jessica Lloyd's Response to the Interview

                1.  Describe your feelings about or response to the interview.

       I felt that the interview was very informative.  I have two family members that have Parkinson’s disease, so it was nice to learn about the doctor’s perspective on the disease.  I liked that Dr. Weinstein was so willing to talk to us; he seemed genuinely passionate about his work and about educating the public about the facts about Parkinson’s. 

  

             2.  What changes occurred for you as a result of your interview?

The interview helped me to realize how important a role protein misfolding plays in the development of Parkinson’s.  Like most of the general public, I assumed that genetics played a distinct (albeit unknown) role in the development of Parkinson’s.  Hearing Dr. Weinstein explain how the drugs used to treat Parkinson’s counteract the symptoms resulting from protein misfolding really opened my eyes about the potential causes of this debilitating disease.  

                  

               3.  Did anything about the interview disturb you?

       What disturbed me about the interview, is when Dr. Weinstein was asked about whether evolution was important in his field, he promptly answered no.  This surprised me because in class we have talked about how important understanding evolution is to medicine.  This was especially disturbing to hear, because since Parkinson’s disease results from protein misfolding, it would logically follow that evolution would play a part in the mutations leading to protein misfolding.  

               4.  Describe the connections you found between the interview and your 

                     research & classwork.

       What I learned about protein misfolding from the interview was very similar to what I learned about in my Genetics, Cell Biology, and Molecular Biology classes.  The difference is that I had not applied this line of thinking specifically to Parkinson’s before the interview.  I also thought it was great how large an impact grid computing can play in researching how proteins are folded.  From my classes, I have learned how important proteins are to the life and development of our bodies, so it is great to learn that something so simple as running a program on your computer can increase our understanding of protein structure and function.

Abby Thuet's response to interview:
1. Describe your feelings about or response to the interview.
     I had never met a neurologist before, so before having this interview, I did not know what to expect. Dr. Weinstein was just one doctor in a practice containing multiple neurologists, and he was incredibly nice from the moment we arrived for the interview. Something that I definitely noticed was that he was incredibly professional and business-like, which made the interview go very smoothly.
     Something very positive about the experience was that he was very willing to answer any questions that we had. Whenever I apologized about our inconvenience or thanked him for everything he was doing for us, he kept repeating over and over again that he was more than happy to be doing it, and he expressed that we could call him if we thought of anything else, or if later in the semester any other questions came to us. It was refreshing because he had such a professional attitude, but was still very good at making sure that we were comfortable with the interview.

2. What changes occurred for you as a result of your interview?
     I really enjoyed talking to Dr. Weinstein because he made me realize that a lot of the reasons that he wanted to be a doctor are reasons that have also led me to my choice to attend medical school after Rockhurst. Between the desire for the intellectual aspect of science and medicine, the desire to help others, and the enjoyment that comes from using deductive reasoning to solve problems that may seem unsolvable, it reaffirmed that I have made the decision about my future for all of the right reasons.
     This interview made me realize even more how important the mechanisms our body uses to fold proteins correctly are. It baffles me that our bodies are able to do all of these amazing things and send these signals and make these proteins without any conscious effort from us. Also, it is unbelievable that just a small problem, or even a single change in an amino acid can cause for a disease or debilitating problem.
        Something that also interested me that I realized after this interview is that many more people than I realized know about and support grid computing. Since I had never heard of it before, I guess I had naively thought that if I didn't know about it, many people did not. But in talking to Dr. Weinstein, I realized that grid computing is something that most doctors and researchers completely support and hope to further this research in whatever ways they can.

3. Did anything about the interview disturb you?
     Something that Dr. Weinstein said in the interview was incredibly interesting to me. When I asked him if he thought that evolution was important in his field, he answered with a quick no. He didn't offer any more of an explanation, and after that, he asked what the next question was. It just surprised me because I know that from what I have learned in this class, there are definite applications for neurology and Parkinson's disease. This is especially true because Parkinson's disease includes protein misfolding, and we have spent so long in class talking about mutations, which can cause this misfolding. After the interview I had to think about this answer for awhile, and I came to the conclusion that it is possible that he had never or not recently taken any classes on or read any papers on the importance of evolution, and its applications in science and medicine. I believe that if he did, his answer would have changed to a resounding yes.

4. Describe the connections you found between the interview and your research & classwork.
     Something that we have talked about extensively in Evolution is mutation. We have learned of the many different types of mutations as well as how seemingly simple mutations that cause things like frameshift mutations can cause debilitating diseases. Parkinson's disease is caused by mutations in specific genes, and those mutations cause the protein misfolding that is characteristic of Parkinson's disease. This interview truly caused me to realize how intricately our proteins our made, and how important it is that they are made correctly. I believe that this interview was incredibly informative, and beyond understanding Parkinson's a bit more, it also reinforced my belief in my future as a physician, for which I am incredibly grateful.
     I also realized because of this interview how important grid computing is. It is such a simple thing to let these programs run in the background of your computer, and it can be so helpful to the world of research. Because of this interview and what we have talked about in class, I realize that I have no problem with letting this program run indefinitely on my computer, as long as it is still helping the cause. Dr. Weinstein really helped me to come to this conclusion because he was just reinforcing how helpful these programs can be, and how easy it is for anyone to do.