![\"Dusting](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/tarrantlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/79\/2019\/06\/Dusting_off_the_data_small-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We recently published a\u00a0pretty cool little paper<\/a>\u00a0(if I do say so myself), but it was a really long time in coming.<\/p>\n Scientists have a responsibility to share our data and communicate our findings . But pretty much every scientist I know has data coming out of his or her ears. The time and mental power to organize that data are limited and must be spent wisely. While we pursue the most promising research directions and fulfill ever-growing professional obligations, interesting and even important results can fall by the wayside. It\u2019s sad and perhaps wasteful, but I haven\u2019t found a solution to this problem. I have learned that it\u2019s very satisfying to bring a bit of this buried data out into the light.<\/p>\n <\/span> Our study focused on a small, blob-like animal called\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that sits in a fascinating position in evolutionary history. They are \u201cprimitive\u201d animals in the sense that their ancestors diverged from ours shortly after the origin of multicellular animals (~600 million years ago). In\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>, we studied a protein called RXR, that is also found in humans and many other animals. In humans, RXR helps to regulate development and metabolism. The human form of RXR can bind to and be activated by specific hormonal compounds, and in response, it binds to highly specific stretches of DNA sequence and regulates the activity of nearby genes. We found that the RXR in\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>\u00a0is remarkably similar to the human form. Both forms can bind a form of retinoic acid (9-cis RA) and they can bind to nearly identical sets of DNA sequences. This implies that these key elements of RXR function arose very early in animal evolution and have remained virtually unchanged over hundreds of millions of years. Through studies like these, we can get a glimpse into the ancient roots of complex structures, like the human endocrine system.<\/p>\n ^^^ blah blah blah\u2026yes I love science, but perhaps tiny blob-like animals and the genes they contain aren\u2019t so enthralling to everyone. I really wanted to talk about how this story eventually got told.<\/em><\/p>\n Back in 2008 (10 years ago!!),\u00a0Adam Reitzel<\/a>\u00a0was a postdoc in my brand-new lab, and we were interested in studying to origins of endocrine signaling and nuclear receptor proteins (like RXR).\u00a0Andreas Heyland<\/a>\u00a0offered to send us some\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>, and we jumped at the chance. We brought the critters into the lab, isolated their genetic material, and were able to synthesize\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>RXR in a test tube. I did some quick experiments that showed\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>\u00a0RXR could bind 9-cis RA. Then we got distracted with all kinds of other exciting projects and my\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>\u00a0notebook got very dusty.<\/p>\n In 2011, Adam and I began corresponding with\u00a0Dr. Frances Sladek<\/a>\u00a0and developed a collaboration. Her laboratory conducted the experiments demonstrating the highly conserved DNA-binding properties of the\u00a0Trichoplax<\/em>RXR. We had hoped to get funding for a larger collaborative project but were unsuccessful. Without funding for continued work in this area, my attention turned elsewhere and these data sat and collected \u201celectronic dust.\u201d<\/p>\n In the intervening years, I was asked to serve as a guest editor for a special issue dedicated to the evolution of nuclear receptors for the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. By 2017 the time seemed right, and the journal officially invited manuscripts on this topic. Adam (by now a tenured professor) and I both thought the opportunity was too good to pass up. Finally, we had the nudge we needed to dust off those lab books and write up our results. It would be easy, right? I mean the work was already done. We \u201cjust\u201d had to write it up.<\/p>\n Enter my \u201coffice archaeology<\/strong>\u201d phase: I dug through my old notebooks and computer files. I eventually found the experiment I had done to evaluate the retinoid binding. Wait\u2026experiment? As in single experiment? As in pretty rough experiment without very many replicate samples? Surely I did more than that, right? Really? That\u2019s it???!<\/p>\n That led to\u00a0brief existential crisis #1\u2026is it worth doing these experiments properly at this stage, or should I scrap the idea? With encouragement from\u00a0Mark Hahn<\/a>\u00a0(who I consider a sort of \u201cangel on my shoulder\u201d in tough scientific decisions) I decided to roll up my sleeves and do the work.<\/p>\n
\nRead this part if you are interested in the science itself\u2026skip ahead if you are more interested in life as a scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n