Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Christopher Solis, PhD, MBA
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: Him/his
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: Dr.
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): csolis@fsu.edu
Position Title: Faculty
FSU College (if applicable): Education
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Health, Food and Nutrition (aka Nutrition and Integrative Physiology) 
Headshot (optional): https://cre.fsu.edu/system/files/webform/urop_project_proposal_portal/9346/Screenshot%202023-08-25%20at%209.38.44%20PM.png

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Protein engineering of alpha-actinin mutant proteins to test biological role in the heart muscle 
Project Keywords: Muscle proteins, hypertrophy, myocardium, sarcomere, mutagenesis 
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: No
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 3
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Biology/biological sciences, computer and information sciences, Exercise physiology, Information technology, Health services/allied health/health sciences, Mechanical engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Chemical engineering, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Electrical and electronics engineering, Computer engineering, Clinical nutrition/nutritionist, Chemistry, Physics, Bioengineering and biomedical engineering, Computational science, Computational biology. 


Project Location:: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: N/A
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: Partially Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 8
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
The heart is able to grow in response to exercise. This healthy growth stems from the enlargement of every heart muscle cell in the heart. Heart muscle cells grow by assembling more and more cytoskeleton, known as sarcomere in muscle cells. In the lab, we can force this growth by making cells work harder and their natural response is to build more sarcomeres. One of the proteins that is a structural member of these sarcomeres is alpha-actinin, which acts as a cross-linker to anchor other structural proteins like actin. We recently published a paper demonstrating that the protein alpha-actinin gets phosphorylated during this growth phase of the heart muscle cells (https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.16925). Given that we found this phosphorylation sites, our aim is to provide causal evidence that these modifications indeed affect the assembly of alpha-actinin. To test this we will take the alpha-actinin plasmid and we will mutate this plasmid by introducing Serine --> Aspartic/Glutamic Acid substitutions (a.k.a. pseudophosphorylation). Likewise, we can introduce Serine --> Alanine susbstitutions to disable the changes of the Serine to be phosphorylated inside cardiac muscle cells. The synthesized proteins will be tested subsequently by biochemical assays such as co-precipiation assays with F-actin. 

Research Tasks:
1) Sequence the plasmid for quality control purposes using the Molecular Cloning Facility at the Department of Biological Sciences.
2) Identify the optimal ORF plasmid substitutions using software such as Serial Cloner
3) Design the primers using online tools (https://www.agilent.com/store/primerDesignProgram.jsp). 
4) Find most cost-effective vendor for primer synthesis.
5) Once the primers are received, work with the Molecular Cloning Facility at the Department of Biological Sciences to produce the plasmids.
6) Once the plasmids are made, perform the the quality control from necessary from the data provided by the Molecular Cloning Facility
7) Afterwards, amplify the alpha-actinin protein by molecular cloning techniques in E. coli cells.
8) Once enough plasmid is made, express the alpha-actinin protein in HEK293 or HeLa cells. 
9) Purify the alpha-actinin protein using chromatography techniques. 
10) Once the alpha-actinin protein is purified, conduct co-precipitation assays with F-actin to estimate the extent of interactions of alpha-actinin with F-actin

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
Molecular biology, biochemistry. 

Mentoring Philosophy:
My mentoring philosophy is simple: you can reach the stars if you are in a supportive environment. My goal as a mentor is to provide the right conditions for my mentees to thrive. Examples of how I achieve this are by first and foremost, being available for my mentees to ask questions and get help at the earliest possible. Second, I provide the motivation and the key information for trainees to understand what is the main problem and why it must be solved. Third, I provide my trainees with the career advice they need to that from day one they can start getting feedback of where they can go with their careers. I am cognizant that motivation is an important driver of success because without the right catalyst the smallest challenge ahead will become daunting. 


Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vAoAMrwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
My former lab page: https://chicago.medicine.uic.edu/russell-lab/
My lab page will come online soon. 


Roundtable times and Zoom links:
Wed, Sept. 6: any 30-min block between 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Fri, Sept. 8: any 30-min block between 10:00 am and 12:30 pm.
https://fsu.zoom.us/j/6263906254

UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes

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Year: 2023
update url: https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?element_parents=elements/research_mentor_information/headshot_optional_&ajax_form=1&_wrapper_format=drupal_ajax&token=ehRuJ-nEvuOrUewrA25DgBYhzmQjOBjmVWXgGUit3aE