For structural biologists like VCU Massey Cancer Center’s William Barton, Ph.D., anything that speeds the process of growing proteins is a good thing. That’s because in order to do what they do, these researchers need vast amounts of identical molecules to study.

Though highly simplified, this explanation also begins to clarify why Massey researchers are grateful for the recent HEETF-funded bioreactor for mammalian cells. For Barton’s lab specifically, the $108,000 piece of equipment is expediting research into how mammalian proteins interact, which is extremely valuable for cancer and genetic disease research.

“Understanding the characteristics of proteins involved in tumor growth, for example, can help in the overall research efforts toward better treatments and, eventually, cures,” says Barton, an assistant professor in VCU’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

He explains that his lab is partial to studying mammalian cells instead of those from lower-level organisms. But because such material is both expensive and more complicated in general to harvest, it’s a rarer study.

This is where the bioreactor has proved invaluable, he says, estimating that his lab is spending 75 percent less time to grow and harvest mammalian cells.

Additionally, by creating the “best possible environment to grow” cells, the instrument has cut operating costs in half, Barton suggests.

“Happier, faster-growing cells require less media to grow and can be grown for longer periods of time,” he explains. “Ultimately, the harvest renders more proteins.”

In the end, higher yield means that investigators in Barton’s lab and throughout Massey can spend more time analyzing and recording data and take less time creating the material.

All of this has numerous positive implications across the research spectrum, from pharmaceuticals to treatment options, says Barton.

In explaining his own research and the connection between proteins and cancer, for example, Barton says that tumors regularly take over (or co-opt) blood vessels to sustain themselves and grow.

“Because proteins are a significant factor in the maintenance of the human vascular system, we are studying them at this molecular level, looking for the signaling events of what turns them off and, tandemly, what turns them on to begin with,” he says.

In addition to direct cancer research, this information is helpful to the study of angiogenesis — the process of growing new blood vessels from existing vessels — and to geneticists looking for ways to impede certain genetic conditions fueled by blood vessels.

For pharmaceutical research, the information garnered from Barton’s lab is helpful because proteins are considered viable drug targets, or focal points.

But the research facilitated by the bioreactor has equally impressive in-house advantages for VCU and its students.

“The reactor is essential for effective use of mammalian protein study,” Barton says. “For students, there is a significant value because it enables them to interact with research and materials and train on something they’d likely use only in the industrial setting.”