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nehaha00

Cooled Organs Stretch Transplant Time - 0 views

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    In the article "Super Cooled Organs Could Stretch Time To Transplant" the author discusses how scientists have started an experiment to stretch out the shelf life of a harvested organ. The experiment was performed on rats, and in order to perform the experiment the scientists first harvested organs and essentially froze them, then the organs were sprayed with a variety of chemicals to keep the organ from developing ice crystals as well as to keep the organ functional. Then, after 3-4 days the organs were "defrosted" and transplanted to rats. The result was that that rats that received 3 day old organs (livers) lived for about 3 months and rats who received 4 day old livers had a 60% survival rate; whereas, rats who were given 3/4 day old livers preserved by modern day techniques all died. Which shows that the organ freezing method could potentially advance the duration for which an organ can be kept functional after being removed from a body which could drastically change the field of organ transplants.
Nicholas Scholz

Predicting the Spread of Brain Tumors Using Modern Day Biotechnology - 0 views

  • ISOpure uses a set of tumor expression profiles and a panel of healthy tissue expression profiles to generate a purified cancer profile for each tumor sample, and an estimate of the proportion of RNA originating from cancerous cells
  • samples pre-selected to have a high cancerous cell content using pathological estimates [20-23], thereby introducing variability into expression profiles that cannot be removed by current computational pre-processing methods
  • he challenge of computational purification is to decompose each tumor profile tn (a vector of length G) into its component cancer profile (the vector cn), and normal profile
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  • Computational purification of tumor expression profiles by ISOpure improves the accuracy of subsequent prognostic models for lung and prostate cancer by reducing inter-sample variation in the amount and type of gene expression signal in the tumor profile that is due to normal tissue contamination.
  • Our analysis demonstrated approximately 10% improvement in prediction of EPE when using ISOpure cancer profiles compared with the unpurified profiles.
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    Using the ISOpure computational purification tool, scientists and medical professionals can develop a prognosis and treatment plan for a certain cancer patients at a much quicker rate. The tool used in this process can help identify the cancerous tissue located in the organs and provide medical professionals further notice of the proportion of RNA originating from cancer cells allowing them to develop treatment plans ahead of time. ISOpure uses an algorithm which determines the proportion of RNA in the organ(s). The real challenges of developing these treatments is of course extracting a portion of tissue with both a normal profile and a cancer profile to predict the spread of the disease. After this portion of tissue has been extracted the ISOpure modeling can process the data using simple MATLAB software. The success of this computational tool is noted to improve the prediction of extra-prostatic-extension (EPE) by 10% in cancer profiles compared to the unpurified models. 
Melissa Menghini

Scientists Use Stem Cells to Grow Mouse Inner Ears - 0 views

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    Recent stem cell research has enabled scientists to develop mice inner ears. This new discovery has high hopes to lead to future hearing restoration for humans, and reasoning on hear loss. This astonishing breakthrough is the result of the transformation of embryonic stem cells from mice into sensory epithelia. These epithelia contain hair cells, fragile cells that allow organisms to hear. This discovery is even more shocking through the impossibility for hair cells to grow once they have been destroyed. This exciting accomplishment allows for researchers to study hair cells, and their connection to hearing.
Nicholas Scholz

Types of Brain Tumors and Their Origins - 0 views

  • Primary brain tumors originate in the brain itself or in tissues close to it
    • Nicholas Scholz
       
      The Mayo website contains a vast amount of information regarding brain tumors
  • Primary brain tumors begin when normal cells acquire errors (mutations) in their DNA
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  • Secondary (metastatic) brain tumors are tumors that result from cancer that starts elsewhere in your body and then spreads (metastasizes) to your brain
  • Secondary brain tumors most often occur in people who have a history of cancer
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    This article goes on to explain two different types of tumors and then states how they start to spread. One of the types of tumors is the primary brain tumor which originates in the brain itself. This type of tumor begins as normal cells mutate their DNA and grow rapidly across the brain. The other type of brain tumor is the Secondary or Metastatic brain tumor. This type of tumor is generally caused by a metastasis of cancerous cells from other organs of the body. Most often this type of tumor originates in areas such as the breast and the colon. Of these two types of brain tumors the metastatic seems to be much more common than the primary tumors.
Nicholas Scholz

Multiple Sclerosis - 0 views

  • Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS)
  • MS is a disease that involves an immune system attack against the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves)
  • Although MS is thought by some scientists to be an autoimmine disease, others disagree strongly because the specific target of the immune attack in MS has not yet been identified. For this reason, MS is referred to as an immune-mediated disease.
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  • As part of the immune attack on the central nervous system, myelin (the fatty substance that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers in the central nervous system) is damaged, as well as the nerve fibers themselves
  • The damaged myelin forms scar tissue (sclerosis
  • Relapsing-Remitting MS
  • People with this type of MS experience clearly defined attacks of worsening neurologic function. These attacks—which are called relapses, flare-ups, or exacerbations —are followed by partial or complete recovery periods (remissions
  • Primary-Progressive MS
  • This disease course is characterized by slowly worsening neurologic function from the beginning—with no distinct relapses or remissions
  • Secondary-Progressive MS
  • Following an initial period of relapsing-remitting MS, many people develop a secondary-progressive disease course in which the disease worsens more steadily, with or without occasional flare-ups, minor recoveries (remissions), or plateaus
  • Progressive-Relapsing MS
  • In this relatively rare course of MS (5%), people experience steadily worsening disease from the beginning, but with clear attacks of worsening neurologic function along the way
  • but the disease continues to progress without remissions.
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    Multiple sclerosis has been associated with attacks against the central nervous system. The immune system has been identified to targeting organs such as the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. It is known as an immune - mediated disease because there is no specific target that has been identified. The attacks by the immune system often damage myelin and create scarred tissue (sclerosis). Patients with multiple sclerosis could experience one of four courses identified with the disease. One course is the Relapsing-Remitting MS. In this course the patient experiences a severe attack on the CNS followed by remissions. The second course is known as the Primary-Progressive MS. In this course the central nervous system slowly deteriorates without any relapses or remissions. Another course of MS is the Secondary-Progressive MS. This form of MS generally follows the relapsing-remitting form of MS and progressively worsens the CNS with or without remissions and plateaus. The most rare form of MS is perhaps the Progressive-Relapsing MS. In this course of MS, patients generally experience a progressive worsening of neurological function, without any remissions.  
Dakota Declue

Adult attention-deficit disorder - 0 views

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    ADHD in adults is much different from kids. ADHD is present in 2-4% of adults. This causes problems staying organized, difficulty getting work done, and procrastination. Other symptoms that where found are restlessness, behavioral, learning, and emotional problems. Most people will act before they think and try to do multiple things at once.
aburbridge017

"Gene Drives" and CRISPR Could Revolutionize Ecosystem Management | Guest Blog, Scienti... - 1 views

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    Scientists have now discovered a way to edit genes in wild populations. The scientists would make an edited version of the organism's gene and insert the CRISPR system, a technology that can cut any given gene. So when it came time for this organism with the edited gene to to mate with others with the normal version of the gene, the offspring would inherit both the edited and normal version of the gene, but the CRISPR system would cut the normal copy of the gene. The cell will then copy the edited version of the gene to fix the damage. Therefore, the offspring would have 2 copies of the edited version of the gene. CRISPR gene drives can be beneficial to people and the environment, but it has its limitations. It will not be used immediately to see what the public has to say about this type of management. 
nehaha00

Exercise Without Diet Still Benefits Type 2 Diabetes - 2 views

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    Type 2 diabetes is typically likened to obesity. This article showed how exercise (without a change in diet) may prove to be a big help to people with type 2 diabetes. In order to test this idea researchers took 12 adults with type 2 diabetes and gave them MRI body scans. Those scans revealed that all 12 subjects had substantial amounts of fat buildup around organs such as the heart, liver, etc. The next step researchers took was to have all 12 subjects exercise for 3.5-6 hours a week for 6 months as well as take a hiking trip which was then followed by another MRI. The results showed that there was a 37% reduction in fat levels around the heart, and fat around the liver had decreased too. These results lead to the conclusion that exercise can have a significant impact on people with type 2 diabetes.
nehaha00

Cool Kids Get Schooled With Age - 0 views

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    Rather than talking about cool organs this article was more about the topic of "cool kids." This article talked about how the "shelf life" for the popular kids rarely makes it past 20s. In a study in the Journal of Child's Development sociologists followed little kids from various ethnicities and locations until they were adults. Sociologists found that children that were dubbed "cool" were developed this fake maturity because they were typically the ones that went to parties or dated at an earlier age, but as the kids began to get older the other children developed real maturity, so the "cool kids" typically began to involve themselves in riskier behavior in order to maintain their "cool" status, but eventually the risky business turned to alcohol/drug abuse. So, eventually the "cool kids" are no longer cool they are law breakers. Finally, leading sociologists to believe cool kids can't stay cool forever.
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