Dr. Quinton Smith: Local Superhero at Work
By Dianne Anderson
For Quinton Smith, the thing that keeps him motivated also keeps him up at night – that a hair cell, a human cell, a fat cell, can be reprogrammed to its embryonic state with the possibility of turning that cell into any cell type is nothing short of mind blowing.
“The idea is that we can create organs in a dish. I study the liver and there aren’t any drugs for liver disease. The only thing you can do is a transplant, but there’s a huge waiting list and not enough available organs to actually transplant,” he said.
Mystifying tales of intrigue started his journey when his mom sent him off for summer programs at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico for his first time exposure to robotics, health, inventors and scientists.
Before then – like so many Black kids or their teachers for that matter – he could hardly envision growing human organs, slicing and dicing DNA, or deeper meanings behind his cherished sci-fi movie Gattaca.
Today, some of his favorite Black scientists include Dr. Cato Laurencin, a university Professor at UCONN, and world-renowned leader in regenerative engineering, biomaterials science, stem cell technology and nanotechnology.
His other superhero Sylvester James Gates Jr., theoretical physicist out of the University of Maryland, is globally revered for his work in supergravity, supersymmetry, and superstring theory.
In Dr. Smith’s lab, stem cells are converted into liver tissues with a goal to generate enough of those liver cells that grew up in the lab and transplant them into the body.
The cool thing, he said, is what they are trying to achieve with the organs, with specific architecture and multiple cell types interacting in various ways.
“In the lab, we try to encourage them to self-assemble and talk to one another. But now we’re trying to force it, so we’re using 3-D printing and print the stem cells and organize them as they would be in the body,” said Dr. Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Irvine.
Dr. Smith was selected by Popular Science as one of the Brilliant 10 scientists “on the cusp of changing the world” in 2023. His research in stem cell engineering could discover cures for liver diseases and preeclampsia.
To date, he hasn’t thought much about cloning, but said the field looks promising for taking a person’s own cells and repurposing them for therapeutic applications. When people receive a transplant of any sort, they are put on immunosuppressants because their body rejects someone else’s tissues.
People are the best donors of themselves, he said. If their cells are healthy, they can be repurposed to augment and replace the function of damaged tissue.
He said another example of where science is going lately involves clinical trials to treat diabetes with stem cells that could eliminate insulin injections through an underarm implant, similar to contraceptive implants. It would provide a better solution than having to inject insulin every day to manage glucose levels in the blood, or go into diabetic shock.
“But what these companies have done is create functioning cells from stem cells,” he said. “They put the cells in a capsule and implant them under your skin, allowing blood cells to interact with your cells. They can monitor the levels of glucose in your body and secrete insulin.”
Diabetes also leads to a higher rate of kidney transplants. According to the U.S. Office of Minority Health, Blacks have higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, known to put patients at risk for organ failure. The agency reports African Americans make up the largest group of minorities in need of an organ transplant.
Sickle Cell, another disease, overwhelmingly impacts Blacks, but is seeing good results through CRISPR therapy, gene editing that can remove aspects of the cell’s DNA, which cause the sickle shape that interferes with how blood carries oxygen.
Smith said CRISPR modifies the stem cells that make up a person’s blood and transplants it back into them.
“Those edited cells now have the ability to begin to produce the hemoglobin that’s really important to facilitating oxygen delivery,” he said.
Late last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the new CRISPR therapy that reuses the patients’ own blood stem cells.
But he is mindful of both sides of the wonders of science. One advances humanity, and the other is when to put the breaks on. He feels ethical considerations and oversight are necessary as technology booms with the explosion of research.
“There is now a technique where we can make that stem cell look like an early human embryo. We can make synthetic embryos, essentially. Technology is moving so quickly, I think it’s important that we evaluate implications of the science from multiple angles, perspectives and disciplines,” he said.
Scientists need to be in the room setting the guidelines, but also others from economists to ethicists. In cases of Sickle Cell, for instance, who affords the treatment, or if the technology will be accessible for all.
Gattaca, the 1997 film named after the human DNA sequence, explores a dystopic not so distant future of genetic enhancements, and potential discrimination for those without genetic enhancements.
With science developments, there is also potential for abuse of information. He said the science already exists to tell if a person is predisposed to certain types of cancer or heart disease, cystic fibrosis, or Sickle Cell.
The implications from insurance companies may impact some communities more than others.
“What if you have this congenital disease, is somebody going to insure you because they know from the sequencing information that you are 60% more likely to die from a heart attack?” he asks. “From science fiction, things in books and movies from a long time ago now are very important questions we need to be concerned with.”
Dr. Smith holds his B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of New Mexico, a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and is a Postdoctoral Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Getting Black and Brown kids as excited as he was about science has led him and his friends to start an online virtual science club to highlight diverse scientists to share their work with teens in a language they understand.
He said the idea is to make cutting-edge science fun. CSU’s and high school students from Long Beach and surrounding areas often visit his lab, where they access visual aids for all that Smith’s scientists do. But, he is concerned about daily distractions vying for their attention.
“We have competition, we hold these cell phones and these devices in our hands, [they] don’t know how it works, even with all this crazy technology and information that we’re exposed to,” he said.
Going outside of traditional settings could be the answer to engaging more young students where they are. It might be as simple as getting them in front of scientists who look like them to see themselves in the role of science.
Whatever it takes to get them interested, he feels society needs to try because the future of humanity depends on it.
“Putting the kids in classrooms and making them listen to an hour-long lecture may not be the best way,” he said. “Maybe it’s TikTok dancers talking about DNA and regenerative medicine. Maybe we need to be more engaging and more creative.”
To learn more about Dr. Smith’s lab, see
https://qsmithlab.com/
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