News/Events

Intro (00:04):
Trailblazers in research innovators, in technology, and those who simply have a good story: all make up the fabric that is George Mason University, where taking on the grand challenges that face our students, graduates, and higher education is our mission and our passion. Hosted by Mason President Gregory Washington, this is the Access to Excellence podcast.

President Gregory Washington (00:27):
It wasn’t long ago that we were all regulars at the Fenwick COVID-19 testing site, participating in saliva-based COVID-19 test, actually developed by George Mason researchers. And now with innovation comes further questions. What else can we detect and diagnose now? Alessandra Luchini is a professor in the School of Systems Biology in the College of Science. Her research focuses on developing technologies that improve current diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases, including cancer and inflammatory and infectious disease. Alessandra, welcome to the show.

Alessandra Luchini (01:10):
Thank you very much for having me.

President Gregory Washington (01:12):
Your Mason journey began in 2005 when you came here from Italy on a research fellowship to do cancer research, but your training is in engineering. So what led you to the field of diagnostic testing?

Alessandra Luchini (01:29):
I love, uh, the diagnostic challenge, uh, to me is like solving a puzzle, piecing together different clues to try and solve the final mystery: who done it, right? What, what is it that causes this ailment, this illness, uh, this terrible, uh, symptoms in the diagnostic journey. I hope to learn something that, uh, explains how the disease develops. Ah, diagnostics and, and new research in it is at, in the intersection between science, innovation, patient care. So 20 years in it. I find it very rewarding to be able to do a research that has very concrete, practical impact in the life of people.

President Gregory Washington (02:16):
You know, you came to the US to do research. What were your thoughts? What made you move?

Alessandra Luchini (02:20):
Right, I was chasing the dream! I, I had a plan. I, I wanted to come here, stay six months, solve the sole cancer issue, um, make my parents proud and come back. And what I realized when I came to Mason is that the tools and the technical aspects of the research were not completely figured out. And as humbling as it was, I found it to be an excellent challenge. And having an engineering background, I’m kind of wired of finding a problem, try to identify a solution, and, and I really embrace this, this new challenge. And I found an excellent environment with my directors, doctors Liotta and Petricoin, that foster creativity and, and finding new solutions. And great, uh, in involvement and synergy from the local biotech companies, students, different scientists, international collaboration. So, I loved it.

President Gregory Washington (03:20):
So you came in, you had a project, that’s what got you here. There was some set of outcomes that you were hoping to achieve.

Alessandra Luchini (03:30):
Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm .

President Gregory Washington (03:31):
What were you hoping for? What kind of outcomes did you think you would get with the cancer diagnostic research that you started, uh, when you came here?

Alessandra Luchini (03:39):
Absolutely. So the, the, the goal and, and the reason why Italy sent me out here, and the reason why I was collaborating with all the C-A-P-M-M scientists was to develop a test, a blood-based test or something that is really non-invasive, that could tell us who was going to get cancer. And so this was a cancer risk kind of test. So we could identify people very early before they had any clinical signs and implications. And as, uh, the name of the center says we were focusing on proteomics, and this is kind of a phenotypical way of looking, um, at the patient’s molecular information. And it is a little bit of the difference between a, uh, let’s say a football playbook and, and the football players right?

President Gregory Washington (04:27):
.

Alessandra Luchini (04:27):
Looking at, at proteins. These are the guys who do things, who carry the actions. And that’s what we were looking, and, and by looking at all the complement of these players and, and you know, when they go wrong, then the health goes very wrong. We hope to understand the cancer development and pathogenesis, so to, for those protein targets to be the drugs of the future.

President Gregory Washington (04:52):
Understood. Understood. Were you able to develop any new technologies during that time?

Alessandra Luchini (04:58):
Sure. Right. Where there is the need, there is an incentive to find a, a novel technology. And it was a very good collaboration. And the Mason scientists were very good at collaborating with the biotech enterprises, uh, around locally and nationally. And so many technologies were developed. My focus was on a specific way, or nanotechnology, a specific way to capture the proteins and the targets we were interested in while isolating the noise. And so in a way, we were stabilizing and amplifying the signal by blocking the background.

President Gregory Washington (05:38):
Wow. I see.

Alessandra Luchini (05:39):
And so this technology then was licensed by a company, and it was kind of very nice way to give back to the biotech community that sparked this collaboration in the beginning.

President Gregory Washington (05:51):
As a member of the George Mason Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, you supported the work on developing George Mason’s novel saliva testing for COVID-19. What was it like being a researcher during those early months of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Alessandra Luchini (06:09):
It was a very intense time, right? The pandemic does bring back very hard memories of hardiness and commitment. I was very fortunate that I was allowed to go to work, right? And, and because of that, my experience might have been different than many others. There was no, not an hour of remote work. I was here. I felt I had the chance to help the community. I have two young kids. And so in the mornings I was trying to guide them through the online learning from the elementary school. And then in the afternoon I would come to the lab, put my lab coat on, and, uh, and give a little contribution to the, to the testing and the lateral flow. So like a, a rapid test that could tell who had the antibodies for COVID, so who was exposed to the disease. And so it was like this sense of purpose and helping the community that helped me plow through this, uh, exhaustion. I have to say that for the safety of the very same community, it was very good that going home, I had the highway for myself. .

President Gregory Washington (07:19):
Yeah. You didn’t have to worry about traffic and all of that stuff. I remember that. You actually worked to develop the, uh, global partnership at that time, right? Between George Mason and the University of Padua in Italy. During COVID-19, you worked closely with the Italian microbiologists to help develop the test. And so how did this international collaboration work and how did it impact the actual saliva testing apparatus that we were able to develop here?

Alessandra Luchini (07:49):
Uh, it was extremely helpful, right? Italy was a bit ahead in the pandemic just for the geographical reasons. And it was good. It was a very productive exchange of samples of, uh, epidemiology information on, uh, uh, patients behavior and given the differences in the environment. But all this information and these specimens and this know-how really help us speed up the technology, the testing, and make it a better product.

President Gregory Washington (08:20):
Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Has the collaboration continued? Is it still ongoing since the COVID-19 pandemic has formally ended? Are you still working with the same group?

Alessandra Luchini (08:31):
Yes. I am very keen in international collaboration, and the group in Padua is very dear to, to my heart, and it’s good to keep the relationship, uh, with your old school friends, right? So with Padua, we continue, we have a class where we bring Mason students to study translational medicine in Italy. Uh, we continue studying tuberculosis. We study sickle cell diseases, and we leverage the collaboration with scientists who have a global footprint of research operation. But then with tropical infectious diseases and tuberculosis and Chagas disease, the collaboration goes beyond Italy. And we collaborated with scientists in Nepal and in, uh, Guinea-Bissau and, and Peru, Bolivia. So…

President Gregory Washington (09:20):
That’s pretty cool. So, so why, why is it important to have these global connections? When you’re talking about the development of new detection and diagnostic technologies?

Alessandra Luchini (09:31):
There is a geographic factor that is very important. So one, as COVID taught us, the diseases don’t respect borders. Right? .

President Gregory Washington (09:41):
That’s right. Doesn’t care about boundaries. , that is very, that was very clear. So being global enabled you to look at diagnostics from the perspective of needs that different countries may have. That we may not have here and then you’re able to take those needs and, and then develop technologies that will also be useful here in the us. Right. So last May you got 1.2 million federal research dollars to support Lyme disease detection and diagnosis using urine as a framework, right? I assume that the work that you had been developing with these global partners enabled the development of this test, which we are now using in the US. Is that, is that accurate?

Alessandra Luchini (10:31):
It’s absolutely accurate. Uh, and that’s really the whole, uh, story, right? We, we understood what limitations can be outside the US and then with the lessons learned, we developed technology and that didn’t require any infrastructure. And abating costs is good. And the important thing is that we see it maintains accuracy. So there is complete integration with the high complexity clinical lab, but without the need of that cold chain, very expensive freezers and refrigerators. Um, and, and in particular this, uh, collaboration, yielded a different technology, which is a specific urine collection cup that allows us to stabilize, um, the molecular content of urine with no technology, no laboratory infrastructure, no power, right? Because a lot of the country we were tried to do research with for many months a year, they don’t have power. And so this, this collection cup allows us to measure accurately diseases and disease markers without a lab, without power. And so, although it was developed for underserved countries, this we hope will be something that can be integrated also in the US uh, system and with some kind of telehealth model where there is not the need for the patient to go to the lab to donate the sample, but kind of the lab goes to the patient and then is embedded in this telehealth model. It is just–

President Gregory Washington (12:04):
So you’re able to do all of this accurate tests without the significant infrastructure of a lab. So I assume that means that people can use it in the home.

Alessandra Luchini (12:14):
The, it, it’s a collection that is a home, a point of need collection and then is shipped at the room temperature.

President Gregory Washington (12:22):
Oh, wow.

Alessandra Luchini (12:22):
Where scientists–in the beginning, scientists are working on the test, and then in the future, yes. Uh, we hope that it will be a home, from the beginning to the end home solution.

President Gregory Washington (12:32):
Okay. I, I hear you. So let me back up for a minute. For our listeners who are unfamiliar with Lyme disease, uh, can you explain what it is, its symptoms and transmission and why it is so dangerous?

Alessandra Luchini (12:47):
Sure. Lyme disease is a, an infectious disease that this is transmitted by the blacklegged tick, which is the deer tick. We have many in our backyard in this area, unfortunately.

President Gregory Washington (13:00):
Because we got a lot of deer , my goodness, they are everywhere.

Alessandra Luchini (13:04):
And deer are intimately connected to it. People saw that in islands where there is no deer, there is no Lyme disease. Huh! So no tick, no Lyme disease. So because of the involvement of our, the environment and the wild animals, a um, Lyme disease is an interesting disease also from the one health perspective. Right. But, um, anyway, when a tick who has that, has the bacterium, and it’s called Borrelia burgdorferi, bite us, then it transmits the bacterium to the host to, to the human. And then the bacterium goes from the skin to the blood, and unfortunately from the blood it goes all over the body. And it, the bacterium likes to hide in organs, in places like the knees and the joints, the brain, the heart. So a minimal thing, like a tick bite, the infectious not treated correctly, for a small percentage of people can result in heart transplant. Very debilitating arthritis and, and joint pain, very difficult mobility, the need for a lot of joint replacement and, and brain fog. But to the point that is very debilitating. And when it happens to a young person, people have to drop college. They drop school. When it happens to an adult, they have to drop work. So it’s, um, it’s a simple solution. We just need to know who has it and treat it. And unfortunately, the–

President Gregory Washington (14:32):
So, so it is treatable if you catch it, right?

Alessandra Luchini (14:34):
Yes.

President Gregory Washington (14:35):
So what this test can do is literally be revolutionary in terms of helping us manage this disease. Is that accurate?

Alessandra Luchini (14:44):
Well, we certainly hope so, right . But yes, the test looks for pieces of the bacterium that are shed in our bodily fluid. And, and these are pieces that can come only for these bacteriums, that, that is, there is no overlap with the microbiome. There is no overlap with our molecular content, it is just from the bacterium. And by knowing if we harbor this infection early, we can treat it. And, and the treatment is successful. However, we are also using this, uh, this test to learn what it is that cause all this, uh, terrible chronic symptoms. And again, like cancer, like, uh, tuberculosis, we hope to be able to identify this pharmacological targets, this, this future ways of treating, also the long-term consequences. And yeah, again, Lyme is very similar to long COVID in terms of the damage, the persisting damage that does to people. And we have some ideas.

President Gregory Washington (15:46):
Hmm. That is interesting. So talk to me a little bit about how did your work in cancer detection and the COVID-19 detection correlate to discovering a new method for Lyme disease detection?

Alessandra Luchini (16:00):
Mm-hmm . And it’s very similar problem. We are looking for very rare labile signs, right? Almost like writing your name on the sand, and when the wave comes, this trace is gone. And so equally for, uh, for the cancer and, and for Lyme disease, we are looking at something very fragile in the bodily fluid. And, and the same approach of capturing and preserving and concentrated this, uh, very fragile biological traces, has held the same value for cancer and for the Lyme disease. And so it’s like really finding the classic hay, um, needle in the haystack, but with the complication that the needle is being eaten very quickly by something. Yeah.

President Gregory Washington (16:46):
So why is early detection important?

Alessandra Luchini (16:48):
Early detection is very important because it can result in better outcome for the patients, their family, um, the healthcare system, right? And we hope to push it even further to prevention, right? And, and it’s always better to treat a, a disease at the very beginning where the implications are minimal and the outlook for a therapy is much better. And, and that’s true, you know, for cancer and all the programs for imaging and screening. And, and that is true also, um, for the infectious diseases.

President Gregory Washington (17:22):
So can this work be applied to other diseases? I assume that there may be other things transmitted through ticks or other types of diseases in general. What else are you looking at?

Alessandra Luchini (17:34):
Absolutely. One tick can transmit many, many diseases, upwards almost 20. Luckily, they are much less widespread than Lyme disease and any, and in one, uh, embodiment of the test, we do test for all the other diseases. And, and there are names that are less known, probably babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever–

President Gregory Washington (17:57):
That one is actually quite common, right? I I I’ve heard of that one.

Alessandra Luchini (18:01):
And, and maybe in different areas, right? Not necessarily in the, in the East coast. And so all of that, there are terrible viruses that they are encephalitis generating viruses, and, and they’re very, actually very little. So the, so we can, with the same approach in, in one, uh, very small cup of urine, identify all of this, but then it can transcend the ticks and look for other vector borne diseases: mosquito borne diseases. But the reality is that it can be a solution for also other diseases at all. For example, we are collaborating for predicting a pain crisis for sickle cell disease children. And, and so the, the idea being that by monitoring the wellness or, or signs and, and alarm signals in the body, we can monitor the wellness and, and hopefully predict when something bad happens.

President Gregory Washington (18:52):
So what about moving over to the veterinary side of the house? Are we able to detect diseases in animals using some of the same techniques?

Alessandra Luchini (19:01):
Absolutely. For the fact that we target the bacterium and so the causative agents of disease, that’s exactly the same. And, and our friends, our pets also, uh, different animals, they do harbor the same bacterium. So it’s absolutely translatable to animals. And it’s actually is at the heart of how this Lyme test came to be. And the whole idea came from a high school summer intern who came to work in the lab many years ago, and now she has, you know, her PhD, and a beautiful family. and her name is Temple Douglas. And Temple wanted to do something for her family that was highly hit by Lyme disease. Her mom, her sister, they had terrible time dealing with it. And so she came in one summer in high school, she developed a test, she published a paper. She was the first author.

President Gregory Washington (19:55):
Oh, first author!

Alessandra Luchini (19:55):
On the publication. She did it.

President Gregory Washington (19:57):
Nice.

Alessandra Luchini (19:57):
And, uh, and the first patient who was published, it was her dog.

President Gregory Washington (20:02):
patient number one. Outstanding. Outstanding. So you were honored by the State Council of Higher Education, which we call here SCHEV, with a 2023 outstanding faculty award. How does your work as a researcher inform your teaching philosophy?

Alessandra Luchini (20:23):
Teaching and, and research, I believe they’re intimately connected. And, and to me, it is difficult to think of one without the other. And I do love, uh, working with students and, and, and students are kind of the reason I get out of bed and the way I feel it’s more effective to teach is working together, learning as we do, learn as we solve an issue, as we–even put our brain together to identify the issue. And, and the, the teaching involves knowledge, but involves also creativity and resilience and collaboration, and how to be professional. So it becomes like a, a different experience. Yeah.

President Gregory Washington (21:07):
Mm. Understood. Understood. Pre pandemic, the partnership with the Italian universities we spoke about earlier, included a class on translational research with students from both George Mason and the University of Padua. What do students gain from this kind of cross-cultural collaboration in the classroom and beyond?

Alessandra Luchini (21:28):
Based on the feedback we received, I think they gather a lot and they were exposed, or they are exposed to leading scientists in their field. And scientists can relay firsthand, um, their experience with that translational research and how to bring the science to the patient bedside and the community. But also there are very interesting and engaging conversation in terms of, for example, the universal healthcare system that Italy has and, and has been going on forever, and the US system, and, and what is good and what is bad. And, and there was a great input from patient advocacy groups and, and, and voice of people who live the disease on their skin and their family members. And so the, the conversation was, uh, very sparkly. And of course, the Italians, they do bring a lot of color and hand gesture and passion, but it was also good to have a deep dive in science in the mornings. And then in the afternoon, uh, student could enjoy art and, and, and history and cuisine. So, uh, it’s a, I believe, a, a good model to teach and learn and, and, uh, exchange different visions and point of views

President Gregory Washington (22:46):
In, in terms of our students, what do, what do you hope they learn from engaging on international collaborators? You, you know, we, for lack of a better way of saying this, the connection between US students and foreign students, uh, it’s one of the areas that is challenged right now in the country. And I think we are not paying attention to some of the real benefits of having people from all over the globe come to one place to study and to learn. If you look at the great centers of learning historically have always been like that, right? You can go back to the, the education in, in, in the Greeks, and you go, you know, further into Egypt and into Alexandria. And these centers of learning always drew people from all over. Europe had these great institutions, and during the whole period of enlightenment, people came from all over the world to study in the Europe and learn. And now the US is the place for that. I just think that in all of the back and forth that we’re dealing with now, there is something fundamental there that we’re missing and you engage in this kind of work. So talk to me a little about it.

Alessandra Luchini (24:07):
I cannot say enough how important a global reach for science and research is. And it’s a matter of knowledge, it’s a matter of exchange of samples, exchange of technology, uh, understanding different needs, understanding different realities, and understanding culture, local culture, and how that plays into the overall research enterprise. And science is a universal language, right? And, and, and–

President Gregory Washington (24:36):
That it is.

Alessandra Luchini (24:37):
And, and we can go everywhere and, and cancer hits us in the US like it hits people in, in Italy. And, and the way we can learn what causes it, it’s deeply embedded in this constant exchange. And I hear you very much in Padua, uh, in Italy is a university that was funded in the 1300. And the motto is knowledge is open to the universe. It is the university, and it’s in the world itself. Like it’s a universal, in universe. And the, the very nature of the work we do is global and needs to, to be global, to flourish and move forward.

President Gregory Washington (25:22):
Well, we’re gonna have to leave it there. Alessandra, thank you for your continued work in disease detection so that we can all live healthier, happier lives. And I really, really appreciate the work you’re doing and the impact that it’s having on the planet.

Alessandra Luchini (25:39):
Thank you very much, President Washington. It was a pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

President Gregory Washington (25:43):
Oh, outstanding. I am George Mason President Gregory Washington. Thanks for listening. And tune in next time for more conversations that show why we are all together different.

Outro (25:59):
If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu for more of Gregory Washington’s conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates, and higher education. That’s podcast.gmu.edu.