Question: Why did you choose to use worms for your experiments and how applicable are their responses to human biology?

Soudabeh Imanikia answered on 2 Jun 2020:

Hi Ella,
Fantastic question! 🙂
I initially chose the worms as my model organism because of its simplicity and also the conserved genes/pathway to mammals and eventually us humans. It allows us to study very complex matters, such as ageing, in a short-lived and easy to manipulate organism. There is no direct comparison between the worms ans us humans, however, when we choose to study one particular thing, we try to find the human homologue or orthologue genes. Then we can use the worm as a foundation for higher organims studies. For example, I study diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s using worms. The worms won’t have the exact response like a person with dementia, but they also tend to “lose/forget” to some extent. When I study that response (phenotype) and I pinpoint the gene/pathway behind it. This can be used to find the more complex genes. Or we can use it for drug discovery and screening. The worm tends to lose muscle integrity by ageing, also “forgets” some of its favourite smells etc., and shows a general slowing down phenomenon which can be all used to study human diseases but in a less complicated model. Plus! Unline cell culture, it is actually a fully intact animal (less than 1000 cells in each worm!), and we study tissue-tissue interactions. How cool is that!!