“You Can Be Both,” A Single Mom’s Journey to Becoming a Renowned Telomere Scientist

Newswise — It was an arid morning at the University of Tabuk, a large university in the northwest region of Saudi Arabia. Taghreed Mohammed Al-Turki, a female fourth-year undergraduate student, sat attentively in a cell biology class. Her energetic professor, donning round vintage glasses, was explaining a recent discovery about the ends of chromosomes called telomeres.

It was her 4^th year at university, and Al-Turki was deeply engrossed in her Cell Biology textbook, closely examining each word written in Arabic. The next page had a black and white image of a squiggly line and a large loop at the end – the telomere loop, T-loop. She had never seen anything like it. At the bottom was the name of the scientist credited with taking the image: Griffith et al, 1999.

Griffith, by then, had already long-established himself as a pioneer in electron microscopy, including images of these tiny bits at the ends of our chromosomes. As Al-Turki continued her studies, she often referred to the telomere image as a kind of goal, something she would one day pursue as a scientist.

She dreamed of working with Griffith but never dreamed they would change the way the scientific world understood telomeres. That dream would be realized later.

About Telomeres

Telomeres are protective nucleoprotein structures that cap the end of chromosomes, like an aglet, that plastic bit at the end of a shoelace. Every time a new cell divides, pieces of telomere are chipped away, taking the brunt of the injury to protect the inner-most regions of the chromosome. If working correctly, an enzyme called telomerase swoops in to restore the telomeres back to their original length.

As we age, it becomes harder for our telomeres to maintain their length. Especially short telomeres have been connected to age-related diseases, such as heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, ulcerative colitis, and liver cirrhosis. Cancer cells are also known to manipulate the repairing processes of telomeres, allowing them to lengthen telomeres to allow for unlimited growth.

All that is what was known. But scientists uncover new things about well-known biology more than you might think.

Taghreed’s Maiden Voyage

Al-Turki grew up surrounded by scientists; her elder brothers and sisters were physicists and chemists. Unlike her siblings, she was drawn to the miniature cellular universe that could only be seen with a microscope. In elementary school, she examined hundreds of cells under her microscopes in her science classrooms, diligently taking care of each one.

“Science is part of my genome; it’s in my blood,” said Al-Turki. “I was very engaged in science activities at school, and I often asked permission from my teachers to go to the lab and look at different slides under the microscope.”

After obtaining her bachelor’s degree from the University of Tabuk and a master’s from King Saud University, Al-Turki was prepared to bring her passion to the United States. She applied to Colorado State University’s PhD program in Cell and Molecular Biology in Fort Collins, drawn by the university’s stunning but chilly Rocky Mountains.

Al-Turki found out she was pregnant when she moved to the United States. Her son, named Ibrahim, was two-months-old when she was welcomed into the laboratory of Susan Baily, PhD. Baily, who is an expert in telomeres, was one of ten researchers chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study changes in telomere length and structure that happen to human cells from exposure to extreme conditions, such as radiation and microgravity.

Using blood samples collected from four members of the Inspiration4 crew, the first all-civilian mission to space, Al-Turki and the rest of the research team found that the telomeric RNA, TERRA, increased in response to radiation exposure in space. The data was published in Communication Biology, as part of the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) package. Her findings were part of the most extensive collection of data in aerospace medicine and space biology.

Al-Turki was right where she wanted to be, with her passion for science helping her navigate difficult times.

“I was going through the process of divorce, raising my son, and I was doing my PhD all at the same time,” said Al-Turki. “It was a challenging time. But, the feelings I got every day when I went to the lab, doing the things I love, completely dissociated me from all the stress, all of the fears that came with becoming a mother and going through a divorce. I felt like I was doing the right thing in my life, despite the hardships.”

After several rewarding years in the Baily lab, Al-Turki received her PhD in 2019. and decided she wasn’t through with telomere research. She set out to find telomere labs that were accepting postdoctoral researchers.

Much to her surprise, there was an open position at the lab of Jack Griffith, PhD, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC-Chapel Hill. With a seven-year-old Ibrahim by her side, she applied to the Griffith lab and flew to North Carolina to complete the interview process.

“I knew immediately that she was a lovely person and was very bright,” said Griffith. “We brought her in without a second thought. She came on a J-1 visa, but I immediately began work to get her on an H-1B visa. We needed her, and I was willing to fight the immigration office for it.”

The Pandemic Postdoc Odyssey

The first two months in North Carolina were not easy. The day she joined the lab, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in full force. UNC-Chapel Hill had closed (including various labs), and Al-Turki was given the option to stay or go. She stayed, performing research in the empty, silent halls of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, along with Griffith.

When she wasn’t in the lab, she was searching for housing. Griffith helped her acquire an apartment in Chapel Hill and fully furnished it, from the couch to the food in the fridge, and escorted Al-Turki and her son on a tour of local elementary schools.

During the pandemic, she was juggling the uncertainty of virtual classrooms with unyielding targets and research deadlines. The majority of the time, her research followed her home after-hours, even on weekends, as she tried to make sense of failed experiments and modify protocols.

“To me, this was all a big learning opportunity for my son,” said Al-Turki. “Instead of just crying that it’s too much, that it’s too hard, I needed to use it – use that frustration and turn it into action. This learning opportunity is not going to come again. It’s now or never.”

But Griffith was there for her during her toughest times. He often engaged with her son for hours in the lab and paid for Ibrahim’s plane tickets so he could attend science conferences with his mother. Griffith played a tremendous role in helping him feel accepted in Al-Turki’s place of work, increasing her feelings of security and productivity in the lab.

Her long hours and dedication wound up being worth every minute.

In 2023, three years into her postdoc, Al-Turki made the biggest discovery in the telomere field in decades. She discovered that telomeres have more roles than previously thought, that they have the ability to produce two small proteins. One protein, she found, is elevated in some human cancer cells and in cells from patients suffering from telomere-related defects. The high-impact study was accepted and published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the paper, Al-Turki and Griffith showed that telomeric DNA can instruct cells to produce signaling proteins, termed VR (valine-arginine) and GL (glycine-leucine). Signaling proteins have the ability to trigger a chain reaction of other proteins inside cells that then lead to a biological function important for health or disease.

Using powerful electron and confocal microscopes along with state-of-the-art biological methods, Al-Turki examined their properties. Together, they found that the VR protein is present in elevated amounts in some human cancer cells, as well as cells from patients suffering from diseases resulting from defective telomeres.

This past year, Al-Turki discovered the cellular function of one of the two telomere signaling proteins and it has been submitted for peer review. Along with her first findings in PNAS, these findings will open up a whole new vista into how the world thinks about mammalian telomeres. Griffith said.

With two big papers now under Al-Turki’s belt, Griffith and his family couldn’t be happier.

“My wife and I think a lot about her, and we worry about how her future is going with the grants and the papers,” said Griffith. “A career in science is hard. And it’s even harder as a single mother. I’m at a point in my career where I don’t need any more accolades; I just want to help Taghreed get awards and acclaim, which is a much more important to me.”

“Taghreed is incredibly bright, strong and at the same time sweet and sensitive.  I treat her as an equal which is how it should be.”

A Message for Mom-Scientists to Be…

With Ibrahim now 11 years old and her postdoc in full swing, Al-Turki recognizes how far she has come, even as she recalls the challenges she had to overcome.

Al-Turki experienced a lot of negativity and pushback when she told people she was pregnant, with many people telling her that her dreams were impossible to attain. But the two most important things in her life were her son and her research. She stayed focused, ignored the naysayers, and refused to give up her dream.

“I think we just need to change the way we think about women in science,” said Al-Turki. “We can be both. We just need the support. We need a workplace that is built in a way that supports our needs and supports our dreams. There are great people around who are willing to help, if you decide to do it.

“The support that I received from Jack Griffith is tremendous. It’s unbelievable, really. Jack is a role model for me and for my child.”