Understanding Leaky Gut: A Student’s Introduction to an Emerging Public Health Concern
Leaky gut syndrome, or increased intestinal permeability, occurs when the intestinal barrier becomes less effective at preventing bacteria and toxins from entering the bloodstream, potentially contributing to chronic inflammation. Research suggests it may be associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, and gastrointestinal disorders, although its role in causing these conditions is still being studied. Older adults may be particularly affected as intestinal barrier function tends to decline with age.
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About Our Guest
Kevin Rodriguez is an incoming freshman at the University of Pennsylvania studying Neuroscience and Biochemistry on the Molecular Life Science research track (MLS).
This summer, he is investigating the role of aging in the weakening of intestinal junctions and using biomarkers associated with the leakage of intestinal material in non-human primate models to help advance the understanding of gastrointestinal aging and its translational implications to human gastrointestinal health and age-related disease prevention.
The past two years, he has been part of the Valero Young Scientist (VYS) program at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, where he has had the opportunity to gain his first exposure to what it’s like to work in science. During his first year of the program, he developed fundamental research skills such as pipetting, bacteria culturing, gel electrophoresis, bacterial plasmid modification using CRISPR Cas9, and ELISA. The following summer, he was accepted into the Short-Term Research Experience Program to Unlock Potential (STEP-UP), a 10-week research internship funded by the NIDDK. A program offering biomedical research training for high school juniors/seniors and undergraduate students from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds through a hands-on approach. In addition to this, he was also invited back to the VYS program to be part of a small assistant lab manager group selected from the previous year. He chose to come back to the VYS program for a second year and take on a leadership role where he helped prepare, plan, and perform experiments for first year students. He helped guide the thinking of the students as they performed experiments similar to the ones he had performed during his first year. His contributions to the program as an assistant lab manager helped improve learning outcomes for students and contributed to a positive growth environment. Fast forward to today, he is part of the Valero Summer Bridging Internship at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, where he is interning under Dr. Aaryn Mustoe, PhD. As part of his internship, he is investigating if aging can be associated with the weakening of intestinal junctions and whether trimethylamine N-oxide and lipopolysaccharide can be used as biomarkers to predict health outcomes in non-human primate models that offer promising translation results for intestinal function and age-related gut changes in humans.
Kevin’s passion for research is driven by the desire to reduce the burden that people with diseases have to go through every day of their lives. He is particularly interested in studying infectious diseases, their mechanisms of infection, and the application of emerging technologies to better predict and combat them. After witnessing the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he understood that infectious disease research is the backbone of effective strategies that prevent threats to global health. Through research, he hopes to contribute to scientific advances that combat infectious diseases and improve the health of communities.
Read the Transcript:
Madalyn Edwards 0:05
Today, I’m here with Kevin Rodriguez to talk about his research into leaky gut. Tell us a little about yourself, what your career goals are and where you go to school.
Kevin Rodriguez 0:13
I’ll be attending the University of Pennsylvania this fall. I’m an incoming freshman, and I’ll be studying neuroscience and biochemistry as part of the molecular life science program at my university. I plan to go into research as well as hopefully earn an MD to practice medicine and help connect that gap between research and medicine.
Madalyn Edwards 0:58
How did you get interested in that career path, in that major? I mean, that’s a really specific and cool major that I haven’t heard a lot about.
Kevin Rodriguez 1:01
When I was in my high school biology classes learning about diseases, I thought it was cool how this virus was able to take control of human cells and use it to replicate itself, how it would cause basically mass reproduction inside the human body. And I thought that was just really cool. And I wanted to learn more about that and get involved in the process where scientists get to discover how to combat that. Because there are so many viruses today that cause diseases around the globe. And I think it’s so important that we work towards developing vaccines and towards improving the outcomes for people who are infected with those viruses.
Madalyn Edwards 2:09
That’s such a cool concept, kind of thinking about there’s these little things inside of us that are able to replicate and cause all this damage. So right now you’re doing your research with a bridging internship, right? Can you tell me a little about that opportunity and how you heard about it?
Kevin Rodriguez 2:11
Yeah, it’s basically this connection between high school graduation and the start of college. The bridging internship connects recent high school graduates to labs and mentors at Texas Biomed so that they can perform research during that summer. Because performing research is, of course, something that’s difficult to get into whenever you first start off. But this internship’s goal is to help students who typically would not have access to that or come from a background where that was typically not something that they did. It helps them put their foot in the door. So whenever they go into college, they have the confidence and the skills to get involved in labs and do things that they’re passionate about.
Madalyn Edwards 3:23
Yeah, that’s a super cool opportunity. I wish that that had been available to me when I was in high school. So you’re definitely lucky to have that. So how would you explain your research to somebody without a science background?
Kevin Rodriguez 3:26
I would tell them that your body, in general, is made out of these tiny building blocks. And when you’re looking at your intestines, those building blocks, they’re basically connected by this glue that as you age, your body makes less of. So the building blocks, they start to become a little bit more separated. And you can imagine that as food passes through your body, it’s not very good that those building blocks become separated because that allows the passage of that material into your body and your body recognizes that, right? And so it says, this stuff shouldn’t be inside of me, until it attacks it and that makes you feel sick. It can cause inflammation and other stuff that’s just not very good.
Madalyn Edwards 4:32
Is there a specific population that’s affected by leaky gut? Like younger people or older people?
Kevin Rodriguez 4:34
For the most part, it’s older people because as we age, our body starts to shift how it regulates proteins and other things that help maintain elasticity within the body. As you age, your body becomes less elastic and your intestine is affected by that process. So the intestine, it’s able to stretch less and that causes it to become more rigid and less flexible to the movements that it needs to perform to of course move food through your body.
Madalyn Edwards 5:24
Why is this research so important and how are you coming up with ways or ideas to prevent leaky gut?
Kevin Rodriguez 5:34
This research is important because everyone ages, everyone in the world is going to get older. Their body is going to undergo this process where it becomes less elastic, and it’s the proteins that regulate the elasticity within their intestines that’s going to degrade. For a lot of people, this can be something that can impact the quality of their lives. Since this is more aimed towards older people, they’re already going through so many other things. Add on top of that, bloating and intestinal discomfort. Like my grandparents, sometimes they’re not very hungry, and that’s just because of how their metabolism slows down, right? And so to add on top of that, like this pain, like when you eat, that can really affect their consumption of food and their eating patterns, right? For older people, it’s important that they eat because of course they need those vitamins and they need those nutrients so that they can maintain themselves healthy and keep moving because movement is super important for older people. The reason it affects older people is of course because of how they age and the impact that has on their intestinal barriers and their protein regulations basically.
Madalyn Edwards 7:23
So this is something that affects everybody of every age, but specifically older people, right?
Kevin Rodriguez 7:24
Yeah, it’s mostly older people, but not everyone that becomes elderly is 100% guaranteed to get this, of course, because it depends on the physiology of your body and, of course, how your body ages, because we don’t all age the same way.
Madalyn Edwards 7:50
So tell me more about your specific tasks and what your role is within this research.
Kevin Rodriguez 7:51
My role in the lab has mostly been to perform the experiments. So think of like pipetting and running samples through ELISAs and other scientific techniques that we use to detect our biomarkers. That has mostly been my role. Since, you know, I have limited knowledge, just having graduated high school and just going into university, you know. I did take some advanced classes, but that does not compare with the knowledge of my mentor. So my mentor, he’s been the one that’s mostly been planning, what are we going to do? How are we going to approach this? Like, what tests are we going to use to detect these biomarkers? And now, of course, I have had input into this. So, for example, a recent sample that we ran, it came out as like not very clear because our concentrations were outside of the range that they were supposed to be. So I suggested that we run our samples through a filter to essentially concentrate it. My mentor was initially skeptical of this, but after discussing a little bit of the science behind why I thought it was going to work, we were able to do it and that’s actually something that we’re doing right now. So I’ve been more focused on the actual pipetting, like physical transferring of samples, but I have had some input into it… the planning of this, of my project, of my research project.
I did also help select this research project. Like, this wasn’t just something that was thrown at me. My mentor just didn’t say, oh, you have to do these things. No, like, at the start of my research experience here at Texas BioMed, my mentor gave me the liberty of saying, we have these projects that we’re thinking of, and you can choose any one of these, or you can add to it. You know, if you want to explore something specific, we can add that, and we can plan around that. You know, so my mentor was very open as well as also allowing me to provide my input on what I want to explore.
Madalyn Edwards 10:21
Yeah, so that’s my next question: how much autonomy do you have in this research? Was this something that you came up with yourself? Or what made you more interested in this research over the other research that was presented or offered to you?
Kevin Rodriguez 10:27
I wouldn’t say I have too much autonomy just because of my background, you know, just high school student, just graduated. I don’t have much knowledge.
Madalyn Edwards 10:40
You said that you got to have some input in the testing though, so that’s super cool and not an opportunity many people would have.
Kevin Rodriguez 10:47
Yes. Yeah, I mean, of course, I do have some opportunity to just talk to my mentor and just from reading scientific literature, I have somewhat of an idea of what’s going on. And I can suggest some things and they don’t always land with my mentor. You know, sometimes he thinks it’s not a very good idea and we won’t do it, but sometimes, you know, I get lucky and he says, you know what, that just might work, so we’ll try it.
Madalyn Edwards 11:21
So I know that we’ve talked about this a little bit outside of this, but you do your research on marmosets, right? So can you explain what a marmoset is and how you decided to do that testing on a marmoset?
Kevin Rodriguez 11:31
Yes. Yeah, so our marmoset is a really small monkey. It has a shorter lifespan compared to other primates that are used in research, and because of that, because of its shorter lifespan, it makes it better for studying aging in populations because we’re able to see more of how its biological systems change as it goes through its lifespan. We’re able to get that data much quicker than if we were to use other primates that have longer lifespan. Marmosets are really just a good model for that, for that process of aging because of their shorter lifespans and because they’re smaller. They’re really small monkeys. I feel like they would be about two hand widths. And because they’re really small, we can house them in these family enclosures where we can also study social behaviors. Because another thing that has been researched or is being researched is how is aging impacting say social behaviors. And so that makes these small monkeys a really good model for that. And also, Marmosets, of course, since they’re primates, they share a lot of the similar features that humans do. So, their intestinal functions, you know, they’re similar to what would happen in humans. And so, because we have these similarities, that makes the marmosets good models to perform our tests on them. Well, basically just because of how they’re small, small primates and they share a lot of similar features with humans, that makes them good models to undergo research and basically past if we could pause if there would be a possibility of similar patterns
to be detected in humans. It doesn’t guarantee us that if we find something in marmosets, that that’s going to be present in humans, but it gives us somewhat of a guiding or like a planning of like, hey, we observed this in marmosets. There’s a chance that this might also be in humans and those similarities are what allow that to be possible.
Madalyn Edwards 14:15
Have you seen any similarities or differences between those age groups that you think apply to the population so far?
Kevin Rodriguez 14:37
Some of the tasks that we actually use in our lab, they’re designed for humans, right? So these are tasks designed for the human body system and how the human body system produces like markers, biomarkers and proteins, right? But because of the similarities between marmosets and humans, we’re actually able to use those human test kits on marmosets. And so that shows that there is a strong similarity between at least some of the biological function between the marmoset and the humans because we’re able to use a test made for humans in marmoset. And so that’s a pretty good indicator that our biological processes, although they may not be the same because, of course, we don’t always get successful results. And sometimes we have to add things that maybe you wouldn’t have to add to a human sample, to a marmoset sample. So they’re not entirely the same, but we are able to use tests that are not designed for marmosets, but that are designed for humans in marmosets, which that indicates a similarity between the biological systems of both Primates.
Madalyn Edwards 16:06
What do you feel has been the most impactful part of this experience and this research?
Kevin Rodriguez 16:14
I think the biggest impact this experience has had on me is that as a high school student, it’s very rare that we get to be in labs. And so this opportunity, you know, just putting me in the lab, helping me build those scientific skills and actually work on a research project has been such an amazing experience, because, you know, before this experience, I had just been like… I’d done the VYS program, the Valorian Scientist program before, and that kind of helped me develop those skills. But this was my first exposure to actually being in a lab and working with real samples. Working in a biosafety level 2 lab, you know, that comes with different requirements than working in a high school lab, of course, because when you’re in a BSL 2 lab, you have to be mindful that you’re working with things that might be able to get you sick. But that’s just one of the risks of being in this lab. But that has been a huge learning experience for me because I’ve learned the importance of dealing with samples and also the financial side of the science, because in high school labs you don’t really have to worry about, you know, if you mess up your lab, maybe you’ll mess up your grade or something along those lines, right? But when you’re in a real lab, you’re working with real data, real samples, and there are consequences to messing up. So being in a real lab, I’ve just had to, you know, learn how to manage that, learn how to navigate that and ensure that I am conducting research in a scientific manner that does produce effective results. And even when I fail or I obtain results that were not expected, I know why I didn’t obtain those and how I documented those or I documented that so I can show other people and share my results with them to hopefully help them, you know contribute to that collaborative process in science.
Madalyn Edwards 18:30
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. This is fascinating and educational, and I’m super excited to get this podcast out there for everybody to learn about [your research into] leaky gut.
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