Stem Cell Research Breakthrough

Researchers at Mater Medical Research Institute have discovered how to protect stem cells during cancer treatment so they are not damaged.

Chemotherapy is a systematic treatment where a patient receives chemical agents that kill cancer cells. Since the chemical agents given to the patient cannot tell the difference between cancerous cells and healthy ones, many cells that are not cancerous die as well- including stem cells. A stem cell is defined by two properties: they can go through numerous cycles of cellular division while maintaining their state of being undifferentiated, and they have the ability to differentiate into specialized types of cells. The damage to stem cells that produce the blood and immune systems is a major side effect of chemotherapy.


Image via Wikipedia
The Mater Medical Research Institute has studied how stem cells are naturally regulated, and from this they have learned how to put more stem cells to sleep. They discovered a chemical in the cells that, if removed, puts active stem cells to sleep. If the stem cells are sleeping, then they are protected from the chemical agents given to the patients in chemotherapy.

When the cells reawaken after chemotherapy, they help in making new blood and immune cells. This means that the immune system of the patient is not as weak after chemotherapy as it would normally be, which helps to prevent infections, as usually chemotherapy patients are very susceptible to infections. Also, the production of blood cells means that patients will need less blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants, resulting in a shorter recovery time than normal.


Emma and Angelique

Acknowledgements:
http://www.chemotherapy.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/

Chemotherapy And Hematopoietic Stem Cells

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Eleven Genetic Variations Linked To Type 2 Diabetes

Image via Wikipedia

Scientists and mathematicians at Michigan Technological University have come up with a couple of ways to identify certain genes that cause Type 2 Diabetes. They have identified 11 variations in genes, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNP’s, that indicate a high probability of inheriting Type 2 Diabetes. In diseases such as Diabetes, there are several variations in the genes coding for the disorder. How do scientists find these variations and diagnose the disease?
Scientists have created a testing device called the Ensemble Learning Approach (ELA), which is software that detects a specific grouping of SNP’s that can be directly linked to not only Diabetes, but also other diseases as well. How is this possible when there usually are over 500,000 genes in the human genome?

Well, ELA only targets suspect dangerous areas in genes by using a complex statistical method. Testing for these potentially dangerous areas using the ELA, mathematicians at Michigan Technological University have interpreted data from 500 people in the UK with the Type 2 Diabetes and 500 without the disease. They found the 11 gene variations in the people with the disease. The team says that the ELA software can be used to trace the disease in one’s family lineage as far back as great-grandparents, and possibly farther than that if there are enough data.


Image via Wikipedia

With this knowledge of what genes are linked to disease, can it be possible for the results to help find cures for diseases in the future? It seems reasonable that with enough information from ELA testing, scientists may be able to find treatments for disorders such as Diabetes type 2 as well as Parkinson’s in the future. We will hope to see advancements in ELA technology in the future.

PowerPoint

Type 2 Diabetes

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Sources:
Images from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus_type_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_disease
http://www.mtu.edu/

Konstantine and Nate

The Monster Experiment

The monster study was an experiment conducted by Wendell Johnson and Mary Tudor, a former student of his. The test subjects were 22 orphaned children all from about the age of 5 to 15. The children were unaware that they were being experimented on, they just thought that they were recieving speech therapy. It took place in Daveport Iowa, in 1939. The experiment was testing if children were told that they had speech problems when they didn't would they develop stutters, and if children with stutters were told they didn't have a stutter would it go away. The 22 children were divided into two groups 1A and 1B. There were 10 children who even before the study began were marked as having stutters. The group of ten was divided. Half went to group 1A and were told that they had no problem with their speech, and the other half went to group 1B and were told that they had a lot of problems that must be fixed immediatly. The other 12 that made up the 22 children were chosen randomly, some with stutters, some without. Six were put in 1A and complemented on their speech, and 6 were put in group 1B. Their IQ, speech, and handyness were tested. Children with stutters in group 1A were told that they would grow out of their stuttering and that it was only a phase, but children in group 1B were told to never say anything unless it came out correctly. This was quite problematic because after that, in the 45 minute meetings the scientist had with the children, the children would be afraid to say anything in case they might say it wrong. Some children started trying to disiplin themselves so much that they had no time for other things such as school. Eventually they got so anxious when the spoke that some of them just stopped speaking. Most of the children developed mental issues when they grew older, and some even developed mild stutters.
This experiment was named "The Monster Study" by some of Johnson's peers, was hidden from authority, in fear of ruining Johnson's reputation. Johnson's experiment contributed most of the information that we know about stuttering, so although this was a very inhumane experiment, was the knowledge worth the pain it caused others?

T He Monster Experiment

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By Mira and Olivia

Technology to Help the Blind See

New technology is being made for the blind so they can see. Barbra Cambel started to loose her eye site when she was a teenager and by her 30's she lost her eye site in her left eye. She is now part of a 3 year research project. Electrodes are surgically implanted into her and other patients eyes. Then a camera is placed on the bridge of her nose and a video processor is on her waist. There are 37 other patients also going under treatment. They say they can now tell plates from cups, see grass from the side walk, tell which letters there are in the alphabet and tell the different from dark and white socks. Andrew P. Mariani who works at the National Eye Institute says, "for someone who's been totally blind, this is really remarkable." This is one way for patients to slowly regain their eyesight. Stem cell research has also been suggested as well as a capsules with protein in them to slow down the process of the decay of light-responding cells that helps a person see. Also patients are using artificial retina which produces some sight. It is basically glasses with a camera that captures images and translates the pattern of light and dark on the video processor patients wear around their waist. Dr Dorn says that it isn't a very good image yet because the implant only has 60 electrodes but they continue to work on improvements. Here is a video about the glasses made to allow the blind to see.

New Technology Helps The Blind To See

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by Jennie, Sophie, and Zoe

Sources:
from the New York Times

A Child's Imagination can Reduce Abdominal Pain

Recently, studies have shown that Children that use audio tapes that give instructions to guide through mental therapy have almost three times a chance to improve abdominal pain than children who simply use normal medical treatment.

The experiment focused on children with functional abdominal pain. Functional abdominal pain is a chronic pain that has no medical explanation. It can interfere with people's daily activities and other tasks. Additionally, functional abdominal pain is very common, and affects up to 20% of children. Studies prior to this one have shown that guided imagery and behavioral therapy, coupled with regular medical care, can greatly improve their condition. Behavior therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders,
phobias, and other forms of psychopathology. However, behavioral therapy is expensive and time consuming, and the researchers doing this experiment wanted to see if behavioral therapy could be dropped and only the guided imagery is necessary. Guided imagery is a psychotherapy method. It is a therapeutic technique in which a facilitator uses descriptive language intended to psychologically benefit mental imagery.

The study used 34 children (aged 6 to 15) who had functional abdominal pain, and 19 of those children were randomly selected to get guided imagery therapy and normal medical treatment, while the rest of the children acquired only medical treatment. The image therapy consisted of four biweekly 20-minute sections and shorter 10-minute sections. The image therapy used CDs that gave instructions to the children to imagine different scenarios. For example, imagining themselves on clouds and floating gently. The children reported that the CDs were easy and fun to use.

29 children finished the test, 15 in the guided imagery group, and 14 in the only medical care group. 73.3% of the guided imagery group reported that their pain was decreased by at least half or more by the end of the test. On the other hand, only 26.7% of the children in the medical treatment only group said that their pain decreased by half or more. This number increased to 58.3 after the medical treatment only children were giving the imagery therapy. In both groups, 62.5% of the children's pain stayed away for at least six months.

The researchers concluded that the guided imagery and medical care combined gave substantially more benefits then just medical care alone, and that the benefits of the treatment persisted for long periods of time after the treatment is stopped. Functional abdominal pain is very common but affects peoples lives. The treatment including behavior therapy is very expensive. If the behavior therapy is dropped, than the people who can not afford it or who's health care does not cover behavior therapy now know that it is not needed or can be treated without it.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

A Child's Imagination Can Reduce Abdominal Pain

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Mason, Afemi, and Coda -02

Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091012084208.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org

Breath in, Breath out: A New Indicator of Lung Cancer

Lung Cancer is a result of uncontrollable cell overproduction in the lung tissues. The overproduction of cells is caused by changes to the DNA in the tissue that lines the bronchi of the lungs. If the mass production of cells continues to harm the tissue, lung cancer will eventually develop. Smoking, ionizing radiation, and viral infection are all major contributors to lung cancer. Although radon gas and viruses can both lead to lung cancer, the carcinogens in tobacco smoke make smoking the leading cause of lung cancer.
Unfortunately, in the past, lung cancer has been an incredibly hard disease to catch early on and wasn’t identified until treatment was no longer very useful. Now, researchers are beginning to discover new ways to catch the disease in its initial stages. One of these new ways is an electronic nose. Scientists at the Israel Institute of TechnolProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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y in Haifa are using gold nanoparticles to create sensors with revolutionary sensitivity that can be used to sniff out the compounds present in the breath of a lung cancer patient.
Although there have been a few other trials of similar sensors, the Israeli device has been the most successful, requiring a lower concentration of disease indicating chemicals. These chemicals are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are organic chemical compoundProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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20that are the metabolic products present in the vapors we breathe out. Since VOCs occur in such small amounts when we exhale, researchers have tried to find ways to increase their concentrations when testing for lung cancer. But now, Dr. Hossam Haick and a few of his colleagues have invented sensors that use a range of nanoparticles that can detect the small natural concentrations of VOCs in human breath.
The other similar attempted devices depended on detecting VOCs with optical sensors, mass spectrometry, or acoustic sensors. These devices are much more expensive and less convenient. Although Haick had a few difficulties figuring out how to stick the VOCs to the gold, he got it to work and the gold nanopartical sensors are much less expensive and much more portable. Along with detecting VOCs in patients’ breath, the gold nanoparticle sensors can also detect some of the distinct signs for other diseases, like liver failure.
After testing the sensor on forty healthy patients and fifty-six lung cancer patients, he found that the device could reliably distinguish between cancerous and healthy breath. Currently, they are testing the device on a larger sample of people with different stages of the cancer and hope to be ready to begin clinical trial within the next two or three years. Meanwhile, Haick and his colleagues have also been testing the electronic nose above colonies of cells grown in culture. They discovered that while the sensor was able to detect compounds already known to breath, other lung cancer associated VOCs were not detected. So now they are working to figure out what exactly those are, which will hopefully lead to new information on lung cancer and how to treat it.

Powerpoint

Cancer Breathalyzer

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Sources:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23331/?nlid=2318
http://lnbd.technion.ac.il/NanoChemistry/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=139&LNGID=1&FID=502&PID=0&IID=741
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer#Causes

Dylan and Cassie

Creating Stem Cells

In recent years, there has been a debate in the scientific community over whether using stem cells to cure diseases such as Sickle Cell Anemia and Diabetes is humane. Stem cells are cells that can become any cell in the body. All cells, including stem cells have the same DNA. The difference is which genes are "switched on."

Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease in which the sufferer's red blood cells, in stead of being the usual donut shape, are shaped like sickles. These cell are much less efficient at transporting oxygen. Using stem cells, these disease could be cured by using stem cells to create normal red blood cells. Unfortunately, the only way to get stem cells is from human embryos. At least until now.

A Japanese scientist named Shinya Yamanaka has developed a way to change ordinary skin cells back into stem cells. He takes ordinary skin cells and adds a virus to them that reverses the genes that are switched on, changing them back into stem cells. Unfortunately, the virus he used can cause cancer. A scientist at M.I.T. tested created stem cells on mice who had Sickle Cell Anemia. He was able to cure all of them. He prevented them from getting Cancer by removing the gene that caused cancer after creating the cells. This is a major breakthrough in medicine.

Acknowledgments: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0305/03.html for information

Stem Cell Research

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