Hypoxia and Reproductive Health: Insights from Calista Diehl’s Work

Calista Diehl on her hypoxia research and its link to human diseases

Currently working at The Horvitz Lab, Calista Diehl is a graduate student who studies egg-laying behavior in hypoxia. Located at MIT, the Horvitz Lab uses roundworms to identify and analyze cellular pathways involved in animal development and behavior. Their goal is to discover fundamental biological mechanisms that can reveal insights into human diseases. Calista and I discussed her journey as a scientist and one of her past abstracts.

The first part of our conservation involved discussing her abstract from a conference at UCLA in which she discussed how the body responds to hypoxia. A protein called HIF-1 tracks oxygen levels in your body and warns your body if it is ever lacking oxygen. Under regular conditions, HIF-1 gradually degrades over time as the body has a constant flow of oxygen, and HIF-1 is not doing anything. When people travel to high altitudes and oxygen levels lower, HIF-1 no longer degrades and warns the body that it lacks oxygen. The body then produces more red blood cells as they can transport oxygen through the body. For most people, your body adjusts to these new conditions after a few days, and you stop having trouble breathing. However, select individuals with poor genetics or health history can experience side effects. Hypoxia has been connected to strokes, heart and lung diseases, and even cancer. Specific heart diseases occur due to the fact that low oxygen levels cause an increase in red blood cell production and the growth of vessels, putting an insane amount of pressure on your cardiovascular system and your heart. The most important implication of hypoxia is cancer, specifically the spread of cancerous tumors. As cancerous tumors grow, their inside becomes hypoxic due to a shortage of blood vessels to supply oxygen. As a result, HIF-1 activity increases, and the body is told to send blood vessels into the tumors. The introduction of blood vessels in the tumor allows cancer cells to go into the blood vessels and spread to other parts of the body.

Continuing our discussion, the latter portion of the abstract discussed how egg-laying in worms relates to human reproductive health issues. Calista mentioned that because worms' actions are limited to moving around and producing and tending to their eggs, studying their egg-laying behavior can prove useful in finding fundamental pathways. While worms may seem vastly different from humans, only a tiny percentage of our genes are actually different. Coupling this with the fact that worms value their eggs immensely as they want to ensure that their lineage continues, we may be able to learn how worms can consistently ensure that they produce healthy and self-sufficient children. In regards to how translatable her findings are, Calista mentioned that she is not entirely confident that worm egg-laying will directly correlate to any human processes; after all, humans are still far more complex organisms than worms despite our differences being a few genes. Furthermore, Calista highlights that scientists can use their findings regarding how worms coordinate different parts of their bodies to facilitate the egg-laying process and apply it to humans. Thus, rather than translating data, scientists may instead focus on a worm's behavior. A final factor that we must consider when possibly implementing Calista's findings is efficacy. If her experiment helped discover a cure for hypoxia, drug efficacy would be considered as it is unclear if it is worth using drugs despite their potential side effects.

The second part of our conversation involved discussing Calista’s scientific journey and upbringing. Growing up in a house with scientists, Calista's passion for science was fostered at a very young age. She found great interest in experimenting with different objects around her home, each experiment teaching her something new. Her love for science translated to high school, where she immediately fell in love with biology after taking her one class. Calista felt excited to tackle biological questions that have yet to be answered, hopefully making a contribution to the scientific space. Calista carried that love for biology to college where she participated in some on-campus research in a worm lab. Her experience at the lab solidified her love for independent research, prompting her to apply to Ph.D. programs. Calista finally decided what specific field she wanted to pursue after completing a required introductory course in genetics. Calista’s experience provides an interesting perspective of an individual who was always certain about their passion. Calista's love for science became more specific over the years as she decided which specific areas she wanted to pursue.

In the closing portion of our conversation, Calista briefly provided some advice for students who are interested in science but are not sure what fields to pursue. She advised students to first figure out what they enjoy doing. Do you enjoy developing new technology, partaking in labs, asking scientific questions, or the many other things that you can do? Calista then advised students to try different topics and see what classes interest them. Reading research papers or watching youtube videos is a great way to better inform yourself about topics if your school does not offer a class in it. Finally, Calista assured students to not worry if they are unsure about what they want to pursue. You have plenty of time to decide on a field and can always change your decision. Never let your fear of failure prevent you from taking an opportunity as you will never know if you will be afforded it again.