How do you conduct a research on the molecular structures of proteins like p53 in a lab?

Question

I'm a senior in high school about to graduate in a few months, I plan to do a major research for my senior final involving the study of p53 and its affects on cancer growth. Ideally, I would need the help of a local university professor (SFSU) although I want to be sure what I'm doing so I could have a little more confidence with how to deal with state-of-the-art lab materials. What are the equipments used to study molecular proteins? How do you use it and finally analyze the results? Anyone with a Life Science background are more than welcomed to contribute! :-)

Answer 1

While I really appreciate your enthusiasm, I'm going to have to to temper your youthful idealism a bit. First, the structure of p53 has been solved, and has also been solved bound to DNA (as it is supposed to do). Since it is a major cancer-relevant protein, as you may imagine, other people have thought to look at this protein. You can read more about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P53

Regarding how protein structures are determined, at first you need to be aware that for a lucky graduate student (and luck plays a huge role) it's at least a one year commitment. A few months worth of part-time commitment for a high-school student will not advance the field much. Having done research both throughout undergrad and at the end of high school and having watched many other people do the same I can honestly tell you that if, after a few months in the lab, you have learned to intelligently describe the system and the techniques you're already in the top 5% at least of high-school/undergrad researchers, and that's even if you don't have any results whatsoever.

The two primary structural techniques for proteins are x-ray crystallography and NMR. You can read very well written articles about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_nuclear_magnetic_resonance_spectroscopy

So I won't bother summarizing those articles. My biggest recommendation is to e-mail, politely, a professor at UCSF or SFSU, tell them your situation and that you'd be in doing some research in your lab. Realize, that like I said, that since these are extremely intensive efforts, your contribution will be negligent to say the least, and a waste of time from a practical point of view. However, since basically all professors got interested in science by wasting time and money doing research in undergrad/high-school, they're generally supportive and welcoming if you want to do research, and universities often have money to support such work. Realize that it will be quite difficult for you to get a position during the spring, but that many labs will welcome you during the summer.

I don't mean to discourage you from pursuing research, I'm just trying to be honest. It is statistically a waste of their money, but they all got turned on to science that way, so they will welcome you (I do recommend e-mailing more than one person, and please be polite to them). On the other hand, regardless of whether they'll welcome you to their lab or not, the chances of you making significant breakthroughs in such a limited time are minute. Realize there are hundreds of universities in the US, thousands of people graduate every year with PhDs in biology/chemistry, and yet most diseases don't have a cure. The problems are complicated and require a lot of very hard work, but I encourage you to start down this path. Good luck.