Sunday, May 31, 2009

Article Analysis

This article describes eradication efforts in Ghaziabad, India where the polio virus has been extremely difficult to wipe out due to poverty, living conditions, overcrowding and lack of sanitation. Leslie Roberts explains how the World Health Organization coordinates a team to visit Ghaziabad in the article, “Fighting Polio Block by Block, House by Shack” from the science journal Science AAAS published March 26, 2004. The purpose of the article is to provide some information to the public and organizations working with the WHO on eradicating the polio virus, which is possible yet challenging in some parts of the world especially the slums of India. Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad is an area where it is the most difficult to eliminate due to its condition. The writer describes the environment that the children in this particular state in India are living in and how easily they could be infected with the polio virus. Roberts mentions WHO’s tremendous efforts on their mission to send volunteers to every home in Ghaziabad, demanding and persuading parents to vaccinate their children. These well-trained volunteer vaccinators are monitored so that no children are left unvaccinated. This is a serious issue that WHO has been working on for the past two decades and Roberts explains it clearly in this article the endeavor WHO has put in trying to completely eradicate the virus.

The northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh offers an almost perfect environment for the virus to survive--even thrive (Roberts). It is difficult trying to eliminate the virus in this area due to the environmental conditions. The homes in this poor state do not have toilets or running water except for a single standpipe, making the growing population of children more vulnerable to the polio virus. Children sit and play bottomless in the mud where human and animal feces drain out from ditches.

The World Health Organization and its partners have been working together to eradicate the disease for more than 20 years, yet their toughest challenge is India. Parts of India are ideal niches for the virus, which its route of infection is fecal-orally, to remain in existence. Hundreds of millions of dollars, including from Indian government funding, was spent in 2004 to send out volunteers, vaccination booths, vaccinators and supervisors to vaccinate the 165 million children in India. They would receive two drops of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). There would be a two-person team of volunteers consisting of health workers, teachers, midwives, whoever the government could enlist that visit homes carrying insulted bags full of vaccines and ice packs. After the visiting the homes, they would mark the house with the chalk “P” or “X” to indicate success or fail respectively of vaccination. If all of the children where home, there would be a “P”, if parents refused or any of the children were not immunized for some reason, then there would be an “X”. The house would then be revisited by the same team or community leaders. The vaccinators are also supervised and tested to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do.

The writer clearly explained the living conditions that these children are living in. It explains how difficult and important it is for the team of vaccinators to locate and vaccinate every single child. She described with significant details what the World Health Organization is doing on their strict mission to eradicate the problem.

This is an important update on the polio eradication efforts by the World Health Organization and its partners and the ongoing problems faced in countries living in poverty, overcrowding and lack of sanitation not only by the organization but also by the millions of children living in this country.

Reference
Roberts, Leslie. 2004. “Fighting Polio Block by Block, House by Shack” [Internet 2004 March 26. High Wire Press. [cited 2009 May 31] Available from http://www.sciencemag.org.mutex.gmu.edu/cgi/search?fulltext=polio&andorexactfulltext=or&titleabstract=&andorexacttitleabs=or&title=&andorexacttitle=or&author1=&author2=&datetype=rangedates&fmonth=Jul&fyear=1880&tmonth=May&tyear=2009&hits=10&sortspec=relevance&search_keyword-submit.x=0&search_keyword-submit.y=0&search_keyword-submit=search&resourcetype=1%2C10&tocsectionid=all

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Single Research Topic

Polio and Post-polio Syndrome

Polio is a naked, single-strand RNA-containing virus from the Picornoviridae family, one of the smallest viruses. The virus is spread through the fecal-oral route and is incubated for 7-14 days. It replicates on the tonsils of the throat and in the small intestines. It may also go to the lymph nodes of the neck and ileum, to the blood to cause viremia or to the central nervous system. Once it gets into the central nervous system, it may replicate in the motor neurons causing death of the motor neurons. The remaining motor neurons sprout new terminal axons that can innervate orphaned muscle cells to form a large mass of motor unit so that there is muscle activity. Most individuals who experience this will suffer from paralysis, which cause muscle weakness especially in the legs. Post-polio syndrome occurs in about a quarter of the individuals that had polio when they were a child. It is due to the failure of the over-sized motor units that was formed during the time the neurons innervated the orphaned muscle cells.

Polio was a major endemic in the early 1950’s affecting more than 50,000 Americans with a mortality rate of 12%. Luckily two types of vaccines, Salk’s and Sabin’s, were introduced and immediately wiped out the disease. However, 20-30 years later, people reported having, unexpected fatigue, pains in muscles and joints and especially muscle weakness due to degeneration of the motor neurons. After years of functionally of the large mass of motor neurons, they begin to break down causing weakness. This may be an unexpected problem for survivors of polio from the 1950’s.

The number of individuals that suffered from polio is relatively low because a vaccine was developed only a decade after the endemic occurred. However, my reason for choosing this topic is because I know someone that was infected with polio when they were a child and I would like to write an informative paper that might help survivors of this epidemic understand about post-polio syndrome. It is important to know about post-polio syndrome because maybe one day, scientists may find some type of treatment or prevention to the deterioration of muscle cells.

Is there a way to prevent post-polio syndrome from occurring?

Article #14: Triphenyltin Cause Deformation to Sturgeons

Beijing’s Yangtze River has been a home to Chinese sturgeons (Acipenser sinensis) for 140 million years, making them the world’s oldest fish. However, for the past 30 years, the number of sturgeons have declined 85% due to overfishing and lack of spawning areas. Now, there is a new threat, which is from a chemical called triphenyltin (TPT) that is used on ship hulls and fishing nets to prevent from algae buildup and other aquatic hitchhickers. Triphenyltin gets washed off and gets into the Yangtze River causing deformation to the sturgeons.

A group of researchers collected 1000 sturgeon larvae and tested them with triphenyltin to determine the deformities. Results showed that 6.3% exhibited morphological deformities such as gnarled spinal cords, and 1.2% had only one eye or no eyes at all (Fenn 2009). They also tested sturgeons TPT-free environment and found that there was a 0.66% morphology rate and no ocular deformities. A close relative of the Chinese sturgeons, Acipenser baerii, were exposed to TPT and results showed the same incidence as the Chinese sturgeons.

Not only does TPT affect the morphology of the sturgeons, it also causes reproduction complications. Banning of TPT will not fix the damage that has already been done because TPT takes a long time to breakdown. TPT will continue to cause damage to the sturgeons for years.

Citation Information
Fenn, Josh. 2009 “Toxin Is Accelerating Demise of Fossil Fish” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 27]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/527/4

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Article #13: Giant Trees in Yosemite Disappearing

Yosemite National Park located in California is home to many plants and animals. Due to climate changes, their giant trees are declining. The result of the declining number in trees came from data that was collected by ecologists suggesting that the density of the trees have fallen 24% in the last 70 years. The giant trees play an important role in the ecosystem of the park because their canopies provide shade and protection for the animals that live around the trees. The canopy is also home to many insects, birds, squirrels and other animals. These old, large trees are able to withstand fires and storms so without the trees, the ecosystem may be in trouble. What is worrisome is that Yosemite is a protected park and the fact that the trees here are declining makes people wonder what are happening to other trees that are not protected and monitored? They say one worrying aspect of the decline is that it is happening within one of most protected forests within the US, suggesting that even more large trees may be dying off elsewhere (Walker 2009). Scientists are unsure of what is causing these trees to disappear but it seems to be caused by climate change. Warmer temperatures are causing the trees to dry. The lack of forest fire is causing smaller trees and shrubs to grow which is competition for water.

Citation Information
Walker, Michael. 2009 “Yosemite’s Giant Trees Disappear” BBC News [Internet] 2009 May 22 [cited 2009 May 26] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8063000/8063392.stm

Polio - Quorum Sensing - Stem Cell

Poliomyelitis and Post-polio Syndrome
Polio is a naked, single-strand RNA-containing virus from the Picornoviridae family, one of the smallest viruses. The virus is spread through the fecal-oral route and is incubated for 7-14 days. It replicates on the tonsils of the throat and in the small intestines. It may also go to the lymph nodes of the neck and ileum, to the blood to cause viremia or to the central nervous system. Once it gets into the central nervous system, it may replicate in the motor neurons causing death of the motor neurons. The remaining motor neurons sprout new terminal axons that can innervate orphaned muscle cells to form a large mass of motor unit so that there is muscle activity. Most individuals who experience this will suffer from paralysis, which cause muscle weakness especially in the legs. Post-polio syndrome occurs in about a quarter of the individuals that had polio when they were a child. It is due to the failure of the over-sized motor units that was formed during the time the neurons innervated the orphaned muscle cells.

Is there a way to prevent post-polio syndrome from occurring?

Quorum Sensing
Quorum sensing is a two-component signaling system in which bacteria sense and respond to changes in the environment. It is a communication network between bacteria by detecting environmental cues such as oxygen levels, nutrients, osmotic concentrations, capsule formation, pH, motility, etc. Bacteria are able to secrete signaling molecules that creates gene expressions and activate certain genes. They use quorum sensing to coordinate certain physiological activities such as biofilm formation, toxin production, virulence factors and motility and many more. Bacteria communicate with each other by releasing molecules called autoinducers into the environment that binds to a receptor that was able to detect the signaling molecule, which then activates gene expression.

How can quorum sensing be useful when developing vaccines or treatments?

Stem cells
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells which convert to specialized cells that are useful mainly for medical treatments in replacing diseased or damaged tissue. They have the ability to grow and transform to specialized cells such as blood cells, muscle cells, skin, organ tissues, etc. There are different types of stem cells that can be found in different parts of the body. They can be found in 4-5 day old embryos (totipotent) which have the highest potential for use in regenerating or repair diseased organs and tissues. Adult stem cells are found in several parts of the body including the bone marrow, the placenta and umbilical cords. Amniotic stem cell from the amniotic sac of a fetus contains a large amount of stem cells that are able to differentiate to various types of tissues such as nerve, brain, bone and other cells.

How do stem cells know what to differentiate into?

10 minute freewrite: My Interest for Microbiology & Biomedical Research

As biology students, we are required to learn about almost all aspects of life and how every bit of cell or molecule works together to form what exists today to be able to survive on this mysterious planet. Whether or not it’s a microbe that requires a host to survive or the environment that is needed for a seed to germinate, biology is a complex subject from the studies of the tiniest atom to what causes the Earth to be the way it is today. Biology is the study of life that includes the birth of our planet, the formation of molecules to cells, the functions and structures of bacteria, viruses, plants, humans and animals, and how certain life forms adapt to certain environmental conditions. We learn about how the world evolved, why animals are the way they are & where they chose to live to raise the next generation of their own species. There is an array of topics in the field of biology that a student may select from to expand their knowledge on that particular interest.

With all of these options in mind, it wasn’t until I took HIV/AIDS as a synthesis class and Vaccinology for an elective that I realized where my interest laid upon. After studying about diseases and what causes them; whether it’s from bacteria, viruses, or prions, I knew my dream was to do something to help “find a cure” to life-debilitating and deadly diseases or at least help create a vaccine in the biomedical research industry. I am passionate to expand my knowledge on the toxicity of a certain pathogen and how it can mutate so frequently, including so many other factors. Bacteria and viruses are so miniscule yet, they can cause such inconvenience to people’s lives and even cause death if not prevented or left untreated.

Diseases that originate from bacteria and viruses will be with the human race as long as our planet is revolving. They will evolve and mutant to different forms of life and require different environments in their hosts, therefore new discoveries are found everyday by researchers and scientists. Emgerging infectious diseases are introduced to humans so quickly that there is insufficient time for technology and engineering that is needed to help eliminate or slow down the growth of these pathogens. Therefore, I think that studying emerging infectious diseases is very important to today's living species.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Article #12: Volcanic Fish Out of Water

Ol Doinyo Lengai is an unusual volcano that sits in the middle of the sinking Great Rift Valley located on the eastern part of Africa. It is the only volcano, out of the hundreds of active volcanoes in the world that is producing black, runny lava instead of the red, glowing thick lava that we are used to seeing. A team of international researchers think they know what is causing this black lava to form, which has to do with the location of the volcano and the future of the African continent.

The western part of Africa where the Great Rift Valley is located is sinking into the Indian Ocean, as the Ol Doinyo Lengai is raising 3000 meters. Its lava is made of carbonatite, which is free of silicon oxide, which in large amounts produces the blazing hot flaming red flow that is often associated to volcanoes. The carbonatite lava is much cooler and flows easily and rapidly like water. Once the black lava hits the air or water, it turns white. This volcano contains several small fissues inside its cone that vent gas that comes from the mantle deep below the surface, normal volcano vents are larger. The gas collected from these fissures contains carbon dioxide, helium, nitrogen, and argon--indistinguishable from volcanic gas released from vents in the sea floor (Berardelli 2009). Basically, the reason why the lava is dark is because it has characteristics of volcanic activities near the ocean, where the Great Rift Valley is headed.

The reason why the volcano is spilling out thin, runny carbonatite is because of the thin layer of the Earth’s crust beneath the volcano. Carbonatite is a component separated from nephelinite that is able to push through to the surface more easily when the crust is thin. However, the eruption of carbonatite is ending so normal eruptions that contain nephelinite will be switched back.

Citation Information
Berardelli, Phil. 2009 “Volcanic Fish Out of Water” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/506/1

Article #11: The Dancing Cockatoo

Snowball, a dancing cockatoo, proves to some scientists that humans are not the only species that are capable of moving to the beat of music. This video of a cockatoo listening to and following the beat of “Everybody” by the Backstreet boys was discovered on YouTube.

A neurobiologist name Aniruddh Patel was amazed when he discovered this dancing bird on the internet. Patel had argued in an earlier study that our talent for moving synchronously to a rhythmic beat is tied to our ability to learn and mimic sounds (Morell 2009). There is a connection between the auditory and motor parts of our brains that give us the capability to react to what we hear. It seems that only humans and parrots have this ability.

Patel was interested to see if this cockatoo really had the right moves to the music in person so he visited Snowball in Indiana. He put the bird through a couple of test speeding up and slowing down the music and the bird stay synchronized to the beat. This showed that the bird was monitoring the sound, bobbing and kicking to every beat. These neural abilities are the same as mimicking sound.

Another group of researchers found the same results with 14 species of parrots and in Asian elephants. A parrot name Alex would bob his head and change the beat as the music was changing, just like Snowball. They were fascinated by these animals so they searched YouTube to analyze other types of animals that might have this ability to dance to the beat of music. The team only found vocal mimics such as parrots and Asian elephants that had this type of talent.

Citation Information
Morell, Virginia. 2009 “That Bird Can Boogie” ScienceNOW Daily News [Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/430/1

Article #10: The Part of the Brain Responsible for Self-Control

When choosing what foods to snack on, most of us do not use our brains to make that decision for us, we take what is more tempting. Whether or not we want to go on a diet determines on a small region of the forebrain that is involved in self-control. Studying this region of the brain will provide help to individuals with self-destructing behaviors such as alcoholism, overeating, and smoking.

Behavioral researchers have long known that self-control is an important component of decision-making (Pappas 2009). But many were unsure where the region of the brain controlled these behaviors. Thirty seven volunteers who were dieters were put to the test to determine which part of the brain controlled temptations to certain types of foods. They fasted for 3 hours and were put in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI), which measures brain activity. While in the machine, they had to rate 50 images of food on a scale of 1-5 on how healthy and tasty they were. The researchers picked out the foods that volunteers rated neutral for both healthy and tasty and made them choose between the foods. Half of the volunteers chose the heathier foods and the other half chose the more tasty foods.

The part of the brain that lit up on the fMRI when volunteers chose healthier foods is called dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, previously responsible for learning and memory. This region when activated, gives the person the ability to make responsible, self-controlling decisions, therefore half of the dieters were using this part of the brain make that healthy decision for them. With the discovery of this region of the brain, scientists are able to come up with treatments that can provide individuals who have difficulty controlling their bad urges.

Citation Information
Pappas, Stephanie. 2009 “The Science of Self-Control” ScienceNOW Daily News [Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/501/3

Article #9: Basking Sharks Migrating to the South

Basking sharks are the 2nd largest fish that swim to the Northeastern coast of the United States to feed on zooplankton every summer. However, no one knew where these sharks migrated to in the winter so a crew of researchers used satellites to solve the mystery of these 10 meter long sharks to better protect them, which may be fewer than 10,000 worldwide.

To track the sharks, a marine biologists and his crew spotted a group of 25 basking sharks along the coast of Massachusetts and clipped satellite tags on the sharks’ dorsal fins. The tags recorded temperature, depth and light information. The tags are set on a preprogrammed date to pop off and record the data that they’d collected. Of the 25 sharks, 18 were received back with data.

From the information collected, they found that 8 of the basking sharks remained along the northeastern coast, while 10 of them migrated to their territory, traveling to Bermuda and Puerto Rico and as far as Brazil. The sharks dived as deep as 1000 meters on these journeys (Pappas 2009). This explains why they have been undetected for so long. Another interesting fact about these sharks is that no one has ever seen a baby basking shark and know where and when they mate.

Knowing where the sharks go in the winter is good news for the conservationist because once these sharks are caught by fishermen, they can be sold for $50,000. Protecting these fish will require international cooperation.

Citation Information
Pappas, Stephanie. 2009 “How Do You Hide a 5-ton Shark?" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/507/2

Article #8: Biofuel for Power Electric Vehicles

Scientists are constantly finding new ideas to come up with natural elements to use as a source of energy that will substitute what we currently use to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Ethanol is an environmentally safer form of energy derived from corn and switchgrass that is used as an alternative to fossil fuel for gas. A new study shows that when biofuel such as ethanol is converted to electricity to use for electrical powered vehicles, it emits less greenhouse gases rather than pouring ethanol directly into the gas tank. It also allows the car to drive farther. Both methods release CO2 into the atmosphere when burn but the same amount of CO2 is reabsorbed back into the plants. What hasn't been well-understood is whether it's better to convert crops to ethanol that can be burned in conventional internal combustion engines or to burn the crops to generate electricity that can power electric vehicles (Service 2009).

Elliot Campbell began an experiment to see if biofuel was more efficient if it were converted to electricity instead of putting it directly into gas tanks. The experiment proved that cars drove 80% farther when ethanol was converted into electricity. An electric powered car using crops such as corn prevents up to 10 tons of CO2 per acre compared to regular size compact cars. This shows that electric engine cars are more efficient than internal combustion engine cars however, there is a huge cost difference between the two.

Citation Information
Service, Robert F. 2009 “Keep Biofuels Out of Gas Tanks" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/508/3

Article #7: How Plants Survived Chernobyl

What happened on April 1986 was one of the world’s worst nuclear power plant explosions that killed and cause deformation to many plants and animals, although some plants survived the blast and the nuclear waste that killed many. The explosion took place at the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukraine after a reactor exploded sending clouds of radioactive material into the atmosphere and tens to hundreds kilometers in diameter. Some radioactive material still persists today in the air such as Cesium 137 that has a long half-life, therefore the area is off limits to humans. Today is no life existence except for trees, bushes and some soybeans that have altered protein.

Scientists wanted to see how these soybeans survived the nuclear explosion so they began an experiment to plant soybean 30 kilometer inside the restricted zone. They planted another batch 100 kilometers from the power plant where cesium-137 were at lower concentration. They waited a few months until the plants would grow and analyzed the protein. They found that the soybean grown within the radiation zone weighed half as much and took up water slower than the regular soybeans that were 100 kilometers from the power plant. However, soybeans from the higher radiation area had three times more cysteine synthase, a protein that protects plants from binding to metals. They also had 32% more betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase, a compound found to reduce chromosomal abnormalities in human blood exposed to radiation (Pappas 2009).

This experiment showed that the soybeans that survived the nuclear explosion consist of proteins that protect them from harsh environmental conditions. This is important because it helps us understand how plants respond to radiation and is a useful tool for engineers for developing radiation-resistant crops.

Citation Information
Pappas, Stephanie. 2009 “How Plants Survived Chernobyl" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/515/2

Article #6: Cancer Cures Possibly found in Down Syndrome

Down Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder where people born with it have an extra copy of genetic material (either a whole or part) on the 21st chromosome. Individuals with Down Syndrome have mental retardation and other serious abnormalities that affects the body system, it is rare that they will develop cancer in their lifetime. Because studies have suggested that these individuals have a lower incidence of colon, breast, and other solid tumor cancers, researchers have long wondered whether one of these extra genes might confer protection (Miller 2009). One geneticist from Johns Hopkins University isolated a mice version of the triplacted gene called Ets2 and found that it suppressed tumor growth in mice but the mechanism is unclear whether it prevents cancer.

Another cancer researcher found that a protein to make one of the genes on the 21st chromosome called DSCR1 interferes with blood vessel formation, also known as angiogenesis. Inhibiting angiogenesis prevents tumor growth so they wondered if this may be the reason why individuals with Down Syndrome are less likely to develop cancers.

Ets2 and DSCR1 both have different mechanisms of protection but they seem to be effective. One is more effective in the earlier stages before tumor development and the other inhibits the growth of tumor. Today researchers are working on preventative measures using these genes found in Down Syndrome individuals, especially DSCR1 that inhibits angiogenesis, to develop low-dose anticancer drugs like vitamins that would help reduce the chances of developing cancer.

Citation Information
Miller, Greg. 2009 “New Clue to Cancer Protection in Down Syndrome" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 25]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/520/2

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Article #5: Birds Recognize Common Intruders

Birds are known to keep to themselves are not aware of the surrounding people that walk by their nests unless they are threatened by a predator or an intruder. Although, most types of birds are able to recognize people who are frequently by their nests and invading their space. A graduate student name Christine Stracey has been invading a mockingbird’s nest, counting their bird eggs and putting bands on their chicks for a research project. She noticed that the birds were getting irritated with her so they started attacking her when she would approach their nest. They would ignore people who would walk by their nests without bothering them. Parrots are known to recognize their owners and so are crows to recognize the same people that come into their territory.

Stracey decided to do an experiment with her ecology professor to see if mockingbirds recognize individual humans. They asked a volunteer to stand by a brooding mockingbird’s nest for 30 minutes while touching the nest half of the time for 4 consecutive days while the mother bird was present. At first, the mother bird was aggravated and would fly away to a nearby bush and shout alarm calls to other birds nearby. On the fourth day, when the volunteer was approaching the nest, the bird would dive-bomb the volunteer’s head. On the fifth day, Stracey asked another volunteer to approach the nest to see what the bird would do, the mother bird reset her behavior, responding as she had to the other volunteer on the first day (Grom 2009). They did this experiment 23 times and came up with the same results. Out of 100 people that pass by their nest, they are able to spot out their intruders. Most birds recognize a familiar person that consistently approaches their nest whom they think may cause harm to their offspring and territory.

Citation Information
Grom Jackie. 2009 “The Bird Who Knows Who You Are.” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 21]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/518/3

Article #4: The Mystery of the Bearded Lady

In the 19th century, a Mexican woman named Julia Pastrana amazed many spectators with her unusual appearance at traveling circuses. She danced and sang and was called the “Bearded and Hairy Lady” because she had a rare but highly hereditable disordered called congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis (CGHT), also known as "werewolf syndrome". People born with this disorder have straight black hair all over their faces and bodies. Their noses are flat and broad, the heads and jaws were usually larger than normal and their lips were thicker. These traits are similar to traits of Neaderthals but were not considered those species.

There are at least 30 people today living with this disorder in China and 3 families were discovered with CGHT. Sixteen members of the 3 families volunteered to participate in a study to determine the genetic basis of this excessive hair growth disorder. A geneticist name Xue Zhang from the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing compared the DNA of the volunteers with the DNA of 19 members without CGHT. Zhang and his team of researchers were looking for mutations called "copy number variations" in which large chunks of DNA were repeated or removed. They found that the volunteers that had CGHT had the mutation of copy number variations in which DNA was deleted in four genes while the participants without the CGHT had no mutations.

Zhang speculates that the mutations change the local structure of the chromosome, interfering with the production of nearby genes (Thomas, 2009). One nearby gene is the SOX9 protein that stimulates hair growth. CGHT may have possibly altered the region of the chromosome which causes SOX9 protein to overproduce in hair follicle stem cells causing excessive hair growth.

Citation Information
Thomas, Claire. 2009 “Solving the Mystery of the Bearded Lady” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 21]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/521/1

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Article #3: Arctic Fossil Reveals "Walking Seals"

As a group of Canadian paleontologists were on their way home from a long day out in the Arctic collecting fossils of vertebrates, one student discovered a shin bone in the ground so she started to dig it up. All of the fossil pieces were collected and brought to the lab to be essembled. At first, they were unsure of what this animal could be but as they were putting together the pieces, it had a jaw and skill like a flipper-less primitive pinniped. It turned out that these bones were of a sea otter with webbed feet from 20-24 million years ago. Its body was like present day sea otters that are able to swim but these fossils indicated that the creature spent most of its time on land.

Before this discovery, seals, walruses and sea lions did not have webbed feet, they had flippers. There was an evolutionary gap of the origin of pinniped mammals evolved from land to sea. The most primitive pinniped fossils, which date to between 20 million and 28 million years ago, had full flippers, making it hard to pinpoint how the animals evolved to live in an aquatic environment (Grom 2009). Almost all sea mammals originated on land which meant they were able to walk and had legs. This discovery of the webbed-feet sea otter, Puijila darwini, helped reveal what the ancestors of seals, walruses and sea lions looked like before they had flippers.

Citation Information
Grom, Jackie. 2009 Arctic Fossils Reveal “Walking Seals” ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 21]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/422/1

Article #2: Sniffing for Diseases

A man once discovered he had cancer on his leg after his dog was licking the mole on his leg which turned out to be malignant melanoma. Since then, scientists have been curious to know if animals had receptors in their noses that gave them the ability to smell disease or sense danger because rats and mice are able to sense sick members of their species. A few smell receptors have been identified in mice that can pick up anything from food, fragrance, fear and danger that humans do not acquire. Scientists wondered if rats and mice are able to detect the scent of chemicals from inflammation or bacteria as a result of a disease.

They analyzed the genome of mice and discovered genes for 5 new receptors in the olfactory system, which have sensory cells that connect the nose to the brain, that all belonged to the family of proteins called formyl peptide receptors, FPRs (Thomas 2009). One type of FPR in the immune system is able to detect chemicals given off by pathogens in the blood which help immune cells to track down and attack the foreign invaders. They thought maybe the newly discovered genes could be FPRs in the olfactory cells. With this in mind, all they had to do is to find a linkage between the olfactory cell and how they respond to a disease.

A researcher put this to the test by exposing mouse neurons to disease-causing bacteria which initiated a smell response between the chemical and the neurons. This area of the brain where the smell response occurs is linked to the amygdala, part of the brain responsible for emotions, making the mouse respond quickly to chemicals of foreign microbes. Disease-smelling receptors were also found in gerbils and rats but unfortunately humans lack the ability to detect chemicals from diseases. This new discovery could be a useful technique for early detection of infections or diseases.

Citation Information
Thomas, Claire. 2009 "A Nose for Disease" ScienceNOW Daily News[Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 20]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/422/4

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Informational Piece: Biomedical Research

The increased longevity of humans over the past century can be a result of advanced developmental treatments in medical research. Biomedical research involves the work done by scientists from many fields to improve the health and well being of humans through the development of new and improved treatments in clinical medicine. This field of research focuses on cancer, preventive medicine, cellular biology, molecular biology, aging, pharmacology, virology, genetics, and neuroscience. In biomedical research, there have been new discoveries of diseases and microbes, and even stem cells found in multicellular organisms that renew themselves and differentiate to specialized cell types. Stem cells can be grown and transformed to specialized cells which can be useful to medical engineering.

Without researches and the development of new vaccines and treatments, more humans would be infected and death rates would be extrememly higher. Recent major discoveries include vaccines for deadly pandemic diseases such as smallpox which was officially eradicated in December 1979. Scientists are continuing to find better treatments for HIV, cancer and other diseases found in developing countries like Asia and Africa. The treatments are evaluted for safety and effectiveness through multiple processes known as clinical trials before they are approved and released in the market. Most of biomedical research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), federal funding, foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pharmaceudical companies and other organizations.

Since most of biomedical research funding is from the NIH, the statistic compiled by the NIH was used to determine the top-ranked biomedical schools for graduate students in the United States. Some of the schools include Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Emory University, University of California Los Angeles, Yale University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University and many more throughout the United States. The costs of medical research have increased to levels that even the wealthiest universities can no longer afford. (Baird 2003) Most of the funding for the research in these schools are from NIH and federal, state or local governments therefore some of the students from the elite universities are priviledged enough to be accepted to these top-rated graduate programs.

Cited Information
P. Baird, 2003: Getting it right: industry sponsorship and medical research [Internet] Can. Med. Assoc. J., May 13, 2003; 168(10): 1267 - 1269. [cited 2009 May 20] Available from http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/167/11/1221

Article #1: Cancer Tumors Linked to Emotional Distress

Knowing that someone or yourself having been diagnosed with cancer causes a natural impact on how a person feels emotionally and physically. Cancer is a serious complication that when a person hears about it, they instantly think that there isn't much time left to live. Not only do patients have to go through the pain of chemotherapy and feeling weak and fatigue, they go through an emotional rollercoaster of fear of death, anxiety, and many levels of stress. These are natural emotional reactions that cancer patients face when they hear that they or their loved ones are diagnosed with cancer. However, some studies showed that not only are thoughts or facts that a person has cancer may trigger these emotions but the emotions are the result of tumors themselves and perhaps chemotherapy.

To put this to the test, Leah Pyter, a behavioral neuroscientist used rats, which do not carry the burden of knowing they have cancer, to determine if tumors have an effect on mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. She placed 12 rats that were injected with mammary tumors along with 12 controls that had no tumors through several behavioral tests. One test showed that rats placed in a cylinder of water were considered more depressed if they devoted more time to floating, as opposed to paddling, (Couzin-Frankel 2009). This indicated that the depressed rats that had tumors were less active than the healthy rats. Another test showed that the rats which were not depressed consumed more sucrose. Also, rats that buried more marbles in the ground showed signs of obsessive compulsive, which indicate anxiety. In the induced rats, levels of cytokines, signaling chemicals which are released by tumors of cells, increased in the blood and in the hippocampus of the brain causing them to induce depressive behaviors; the hippocampus is involved in regulating emotional behavior.

It is natural for humans to feel the mental burden of being diagnosed with cancer. This causes tremendous distress, however, scientist have found that not only the natural feeling that humans get causes these stress but they are also caused by neurological release of chemicals from tumor cells secreted into the hippocampus of the brains that plays an important role of depression and anxiety.


Citation Information
Couzin-Frankel J, compiler. 2009 "Tumors Trigger Cancer Blues" ScienceNOW Daily News [Internet] Washington DC and Cambridge, UK: High Wire Press; 2009 [cited 2009 May 19]. Available from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/519/2

Research & Writing Experiences

I am a biology student at George Mason University and my interest is in infectious diseases and emerging human pathogens. Although I'm fairly new to research and writing, I am looking forward to learning how to become a better writer and researcher. I've only written a few papers for my biology classes here at George Mason University. As you know, many of the undergrad biology classes do not require much writing, just a lot of lab work - but I know there are a lot of research papers on particular species or diseases out there that are useful and helpful to the community of students interested in science, medical students, doctors and researchers. I am eager to learn how to become one of those writers that could help others better understand how a certain bacteria or virus mutates and how their virulence factors can effect their specific hosts... or something around that nature.

For one of my research papers I had to write a paper for a class on a species of freshwater gastropods and how living conditions such as one with a predator, like a crayfish, could affect their shell growth and how fast the shells grew in a certain amount of time. The snails were kept in a tank filled with water for weeks with or without a crayfish and the students were to measure their shell lengths and widths, along with their operculums (coverings of their shells) to determine if the shells had any growth changes when a predator such as a crayfish was present or not. The research paper was not as simple as it may have sound. The research paper took a few weeks to a month to complete because the experiment itself took time to finalize and we had to gather as much data & measurements as possible to prove whether the hypothesis, ‘If Predation Affects Shell Growth’ was true or not. The research paper required comparisons from other scientists’ data and different types of methods used, such as water conditions and numbers of predations. These results and data from other researchers were from scientific articles that were obtained from online resources and school databases to use to compare information. The final product of the research paper was well-written but minor changes and improvements could have been essential.

By taking English 305, advanced composition, I expect to gain more knowledge of critical writing, especially writing formal papers that would be beneficial to me in my future workplace. I expect to learn how to use needed information and analyze research papers from other scientists to write about arguments against their research to support my ideas in my own research papers. I would also like to improve my vocabulary and to be able to use more formal diction and tone.

Although my experience with research and writing is limited because I have not written or worked on many researches in my field of study, which is biology, I plan to expand my knowledge from what I have learned up until present. However, my interest is in researching infectious diseases so I would assume a lot of other scientists' research papers would be used to write my own research. I plan on expanding my knowledge in researching, how to find the right information to use when writing a research paper. Also, by using other scientific papers to compare writing styles and scientific methods used to develop an idea of what is necessary in a well-written paper that will benefit me. The tools that were provided to me to help with writing in past essays were basic tools and were not used for advanced and technical writing. I plan to use what I learn in this class to help me achieve better writing skills to take with me as I advance in my field of study or in my future career. My goal is to be an improved writer with the knowledge of what I’ve learned to be successful in writing my own research papers and to learn how to analyze other writers’ research papers and to make arguments against their ideas if necessary.