Health Leadership Apprentice Program coordinator Landon A. Hackley authored the following post.
Cole Maguire is a rising third-year biochemistry student with a minor in classical civilization who joined the Health Leadership Apprentice Program (HLA) in summer 2018. The Dallas native’s passion for biochemistry and involvement in HLA led him to work alongside Dell Medical School multiple sclerosis (MS) researcher Esther Melamed, M.D., Ph.D., to study how “moderate alcohol consumption affects the gut microbiome in a murine model of multiple sclerosis.”
While the research title sounds daunting, Maguire said it boils down to this: “We’re feeding mice a small alcohol diet to see how it affects the progression of diseases such as multiple sclerosis.” He explained how he and his team have been measuring levels of paralysis in mice for the last several months to see if alcohol exacerbates or alleviates the onset of the central nervous system disease. Through a great amount of work, attention to detail and time, Maguire and his team have already begun to see results — surprising ones at that.
“We’re seeing a correlation specifically in the male mice that shows that a little bit of alcohol is actually protective, while in the female mice it is degradative,” he said.
Maguire emphasized that this doesn’t mean we are going to start prescribing alcohol to MS patients anytime soon. Rather, he said, “We want to see what is mediating this reaction. We want to know what is changing in the gut microbiome, or the census of bacterial species that occupy the gut, as a result of the alcohol consumption.” He said that since the gut controls a majority of the immune system, any change discovered through this study could help us get closer to understanding the progression of MS.
Maguire said he has HLA to thank for his newfound love for microbiome science.
“I joined Dr. Melamed’s lab the summer I joined the HLA program after she posted the research opportunity for her lab to the HLA listing,” he said. “It was through the HLA program that I was able to try something new, exciting and cutting-edge, and I haven’t looked back.” Maguire has continued with Melamed’s project since he joined in 2018 and hopes to see it through to the end.
Maguire said he is thankful for the skills and knowledge he’s gained through working with his lab-mates; he found a love for large data analysis through his microbiome sequencing work. “I’m having a lot of fun with the data as I’m discovering new trends and ways to look at it, so I’ve stuck with it and gotten better and better at analyzing large sets of data,” he said.
He’s now manipulating an existing technique for analyzing gene expression networks and utilizing it for gut microbiome analysis. Maguire said he plans to polish the technique, so after he publishes his work, others can use the method for future microbiome-related studies. “This really has the potential to go beyond just an alcohol-MS study,” he said.
After graduation, Maguire hopes to complete an M.D.-Ph.D. program so he can pursue similar work to what he is involved in now. He said his mentor, Melamed, has been a huge inspiration and has led him to his new passion for neurology. He said he would not be where he is without his incredible team: Blaine Caslin, Aditi Karmakar, Kristen Helmsdoerfer, Kailey Mohler, Julie Ward and Dennis Wylie.
Outside of Dell Med, Maguire is an officer in Texas Forensics where he serves as the publicity and outreach chair.
If you are interested in learning more about Maguire’s work, reach out to an HLA program coordinator.