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Hannah Herrera

Growing blood stem cells in the lab to save lives -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

  • Hematopoietic stem cells
  • bone marrow is damaged and no longer able to produce healthy blood cells
  • Though cytokines were once believed to be indispensable for ex vivo HSC growth, the research team hypothesized other new approaches as suitable alternatives.
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  • ompound called UM171,
  • specific polymer, improved the results by supporting long-term HSC expansion.
Sean Nash

Regeneron ISEF 2023 - Finalist Project Portal - 6 views

  • Choose a category to begin
    • Sean Nash
       
      This is a really good way to dive into specific categories and explore the projects that made it to this year's ISEF. What I would do is start with what immediately interests you for now... and pick up some tips. You might get ideas for areas/topics to research. You might see creative methods used in various studies. Pay particular attention to the fact that some utilize equipment only available at a university or corporate lab, but... many also feature creative methods done by students at home or in school labs as well!
    • Sean Nash
       
      Once you get inside projects that you get ideas from, feel free to save them in Diigo for later, or share really interesting ones with others you think might benefit from seeing it.
    • Sean Nash
       
      One final thing: you might also get some tips for elements of their presentation that appeal to you.
prishabpatel

Lectins as Bioactive Plant Proteins: A Potential in Cancer Treatment - 1 views

  •  
    Nifty. OK, here's my initial reaction: do we know what the proposed mechanism of action is for lectins regarding cancers? HOW do we think they are having this measurable effect? If we know that... is there a simple animal model where we could measure the same/similar effect right here in the lab?
Sean Nash

Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica - 4 views

  • there is a lack of observational data on the behavior of plants
  • Observational research allows the researcher to establish baseline activity and response levels of the subject
  • Perhaps the first study of learning in plants was a habituation experiment reported by Pfeffer (1873) using the sensitive plant Mimosa. In this experiment, repeated mechanical stimulation of leaflets led to a decrease in sensitivity
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  • the question naturally arises as to whether Mimosa can discriminate between stimuli. This was answered in the affirmative by Holmes and Gruenberg (1965) whose experimental design included a drop of water and finger touch as stimuli
  • the results suggest that Mimosa can discriminate between stimuli
  • Thomas performed an experiment on classical conditioning in Mimosa that took advantage of the finding that, under field conditions, the leaflets of Mimosa slowly drop as dusk approaches and slowly rise at dawn (personal communication). In the experiment, the CS was turning on the light in the growth chamber and the US was touching selected leaflets. Thomas found that leaflets in the paired condition showed conditioning compared to a light only or alternating stimulation condition. This finding should be replicated with controls for pseudoconditioning.
  • Given the importance of the Gagliano et al. (2014) experiment and the failure to replicate some previous experimental results it is critical that the Gagliano et al. (2014) results be repeated by an independent laboratory.
  • In addition to Mimosa, habituation has been found in the carnivorous plant Drosera (sundew
  • Applewhite (1975) cites an experiment by Darwin reportedly showing habituation in the passion flower (Passiflora gracilis). During this experiment, when Darwin mechanically stimulated the passion flower tendrils, the tendrils no longer responded after 54 h of training.
  • Abramson et al. (2002) investigated the use of bioelectrical potentials as a method to explore plant behavior.
  • In an interesting article, Karpinski and Szechynska-Hebda (2010) discuss the intellect of plants from memory to intelligence. By studying recall, the researcher investigates a host of independent variables and that are solidly anchored to a set of dependent variables. This study focused on recall at the cellular level rather than as an externally observable behavior. The discussion of plant learning at various levels, from cellular to organismal and from different scientific fields is exactly what is advocated for in this article
  • There is also interest from behavioral scientists seeking to determine whether the similarities and differences in learning found among invertebrates and vertebrates could also be found in plants (Warden et al., 1940; Applewhite, 1975; Abramson et al., 2002; Guiguet, 2013).
  • The majority of early plant studies used the Sensitive plant (M. pudica). Mimosa has much to recommend it for learning studies. They are easy to maintain, much is known about its natural history, and they have a visible leaf closure response to external stimuli. However, there are drawbacks in the use of Mimosa, for example, it takes about 15 min for a leaf to recover (Holmes and Gruenberg, 1965) and not much is known about its genome in contrast to model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana whose entire genome is known.
  • In the following section we will focus on methods to develop studies utilizing habituation, sensitization, and classical conditioning techniques. Instrumental and operant conditioning will not be covered because at this time there are no Mimosa studies in these areas; although one can envision a situation where the opening and closing of a leaf can be detected electronically. Once detected, the response would produce a consequence such as an airpuff or changes in light intensity.
    • Sean Nash
       
      The remainder of this comprehensive article is to outline the main lines of research in this area:
  • Learning in Plants: Lessons from Mimosa pudica
    • Sean Nash
       
      This well-compiled article does a really nice job of outlining the history of study regarding plant behavior. It also suggests model organisms for study. Mimosa is a favorite of mine as their response is VERY rapid and quite visible for a plant! There are all sorts of feasible project ideas that could arise from this area of research.
katherine-medina

In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Safety of Amygdalin as a Cance... - 0 views

  • ]. Approximately 80% of all medications approved by the FDA in the last three decades have been derived from natural sources
  • Transdermal drug delivery is a promising route for cancer treatment compared with the oral route due to its low side effects and improved efficacy and selectivity
  • All ALN formulations containing DDP exhibited a higher percent of EE and smaller particle size and PDI than those that did not have DDP at the molar ratio investigated.
    • katherine-medina
       
      If I am to do my research project over the affects of amygdalin patches on cancer, I will need to keep this section of text in mind.
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  • The optimum ALN gel formulation reduced mean relative carcinoma volume (MCV) at a higher rate (p < 0.05) compared with free amygdalin solution and free tamoxifene suspension.
  • that the optimum ALN gel formulation reduced mean relative carcinoma volume (MCV) compared with the DMBA control.
    • katherine-medina
       
      reduced carcinoma in comparison to control group
  • . The value of the zeta potential indicated a negative surface charge, which is considered advantageous for transdermal drug delivery and for electrostatic stabilization due to the electrostatic repulsions between vesicles
    • katherine-medina
       
      Good to note.
  • 3. Materials and Methods3.1. MaterialsAmygdalin was attained from Nature’s Only Choice Company (Tbilisi, GA, USA). Sigma Aldrich (Agitech Company, Cairo, Egypt) provided Tween 60, Span 60, cholesterol, 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a] anthracene (DMBA), triethanolamine, and dihexadecyl phosphate. Carbopol 934, methanol, acetone, and chloroform were attained from Corner-Lab Company (Cairo, Egypt).
  • Histological examination of the oral tamoxifen suspension treated group (Figure 7C) revealed the presence of hyperkeratosis and acanthosis in the surface epithelium of the epidermis with signs of a diffuse inflammatory response and edema in the dermis and sub-cutaneous tissue.
  • Histological examination of the optimum ALN gel treated group (Figure 7F) showed clearly healed skin with normal covering epithelium and marked improvement in all signs of the epidermis and dermis that were better than those of the oral amygdalin solution. These results confirmed the effectiveness of amygdalin loaded niosomes gel as a cancer therapy in vivo.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Cool, so they tested and confirmed that ALN gel does work to treat cancer of the skin.
  • Histological examination of the optimum ALN gel-treated group (Figure 8B) showed clearly healed skin with normal covering epithelium.
  • The group treated with plain niosomes gel showed MCV nearly similar to that of the DMBA control group.
    • katherine-medina
       
      SO the niosome gel doesn't do much.
  • The optimum ALN gel enhanced the permeation of amygdalin into deep skin layers and showed significant anti-tumor activity compared with oral tamoxifen.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I think that Amygdalen could be one of my research topics for this upcoming year.
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    A really cool study that showed that Amygdalin in a gel form can prove to be very sucsessful at healing tumors from the epidermis.
Hannah Herrera

Can investigators use household dust as a forensic tool? -- ScienceDaily - 1 views

  • we don't know how long an individual has to stay in a household before they leave DNA traces in household dust."
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