MARP 2023: Amy and Katherine “Katie”
Symbiosis: The powerhouse of mitochondria and advocate-researcher relationships
Amy Beumer, Advocate and Katherine “Katie” Pendleton, Researcher
Symbiosis Noun, biology Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
When Dr. Lynn Margulis first described the (now) theory that eukaryotic cells evolved in part by the uptake of free living bacteria by larger cells, scientists were skeptical. As they should be! Any new hypothesis as paradigm changing as the above requires lots of proof. Since then, the endosymbiotic theory has become standard fare in introductory biology courses and is supported by large amounts of evidence. But what is symbiosis, and what on Earth does it have to do with advocate and researcher partnerships? First, symbiosis can be defined as the state of organisms of different species living in close proximity and interacting with each other. There are different types of symbioses, but the one we are most interested in, and will form the basis of this elaborate metaphor, is mutualism, where both organisms benefit from the interaction or symbiosis. Just as our cells benefit from the energy production of mitochondria and the mitochondria benefit from a protected space, advocates and researchers each benefit from each other.
Before we get deeper into this elaborate metaphor, we should introduce ourselves and our roles in this symbiotic relationship. Amy is a patient advocate living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). She was initially diagnosed with stage I breast cancer in 2017 and in 2020 recurrent MBC. Amy is also a scientist and educator, earning her PhD in biology conducting research in microbiology that ranged from gene transfer, to biofilms, and later to the microbiology of drinking water. She loves teaching and taught microbiology and introductory biology lectures and labs as well as other courses for over a decade before MBC led to her early “retirement”. She has since shifted, learning as much as possible about MBC, attending conferences, and becoming involved in research and other types of advocacy. Katie is a current PhD student at Baylor College of Medicine where she studies the metabolism of chemoresistant breast cancer cells. There was no one defining moment that made Katie want to pursue this line of work. Instead, it was the culmination of a lifelong interest in the secrets of the microscopic world. We have only just scratched the surface of the intricacies of biology, and she finds it thrilling to be one of the pioneers that are delving into this unknown universe. Cancer is a very intriguing puzzle. At its core, it’s a disease of our DNA. By discovering how DNA becomes dysregulated and leads to cancer, we are, in a sense, learning more about what makes us human. Beyond the scientific curiosity of cancer research, she also acknowledges the very human element that comes with studying this disease. Every person on Earth has been impacted by cancer - either contracting it themselves or knowing family and friends who have been diagnosed. Cancer is so devastating to our society, and Katie can’t think of a better disease to devote her life towards curing.
Amy & Katie in Park City, Utah at the MBCRC
Katie and Amy had the fortune to meet at the Metastatic Breast Cancer Research Conference (MBCRC), a conference devoted solely to research and patient advocacy in the metastatic setting. During our early discussions we learned that we both are mitochondria nerds and we agreed that science is a creative process. This led to wanting to frame the researcher-advocate relationship as a symbiosis, similar to that of the mitochondria and the cell in which it resides. Like all metaphors, this one will break down eventually, but we want to see how far we can take it. The endosymbiotic theory postulates that mitochondria started as bacteria, completely independent from the Eukaryotic cells (our cells). At some point, the large, Eukaryotic cells engulfed the bacteria. Typically, this would result in the death of the bacterium as it was eaten by the cell. But something quite curious happened. In at least one instance, the Eukaryotic cell did not eat the bacterium, but allowed it to stay inside, providing shelter and easy access to nutrients. In return, the bacteria also provided a service to the cell - they were put to work, converting energy in a much more efficient way than the cell could do alone. And from these bacteria, mitochondria were born. Aww, baby mitochondria.
Created with BioRender.com
Ok, now that we’ve got the biology out of the way, how does this relate to advocate-researcher relationships? Well, think of the large Eukaryotic cell as a researcher and the advocate as the mitochondria. Both the researcher and advocate can do just fine on their own; however, their cooperation is greater than the sum of their individual parts. By incorporating an advocate perspective to the researcher, a scientist is equipped to investigate questions that truly matter to patients. Researchers also benefit from advocate support in acquiring grants and even disseminating findings. Importantly, advocates also provide urgency to the research by putting a face to the disease. Mitochondria, in a sense, are just like the advocates! By providing extra energy to the cell, the scientist and their important research has a much greater chance of survival. But what does the advocate get out of this symbiosis? An advocate shares the patient viewpoint and helps direct research towards what really matters to the community (we both value this as Katie wrote it above!). Advocates also learn about the science and the process of research, which is beneficial to sharing out information to the community, but equally as important gives us hope- hope for more effective treatments, fewer side effects, and ultimately long-term survival, like the mitochondria.
In the future, we plan to see each other after the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, with Amy visiting Katie in the lab and getting the grand tour and talking science and patient perspective. Additionally, we plan to videoconference for a lab meeting or anytime Katie wants to seek a patient perspective (or Amy wants to dig deeper into the role of mitochondria in MBC).
Finally, we are both incredibly grateful to Theresa’s Research Foundation and the MBCRC Advocate Researcher Program (MARP) for bringing us together at the MBCRC. Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to build a symbiosis!