Pregnancy in sickle cell disease is a very high risk

Does sickle cell disease inhibit pregnancy?

A New Science: Scaffolding and Tissue Engineering Heart Valves

           More than 5 million of the adult U.S. population suffers from heart disease and heart valve dysfunction plays a large part which leads to 20,000 deaths annually. The third most common cardiovascular (CV) disease is aortic valve dysfunction. Heart valves maintain one-way flow of blood to our body. Newborns can be born with heart valve malfunction. Heart valve dysfunction can also be caused by mineralized calcium deposits that lead to calcification and genetic defects in matrix protein structure. The medical treatment for a valve malfunction is to replace the original valve with an artificial one. Cardiac surgeries to replace heart valves are common and improve life expectancy. Clinically, only mechanical and biological artificial valves are used with some drawbacks. A new technique is tissue engineering (TE) that is being researched and not yet performed clinically. This new method is a 3-D scaffold that is fabricated as the template for neo-tissue development; appropriate cells are then seeded to the matrix in vitro. This new technique can eliminate the need for lifelong anti-coagulation (blood thinners), durability, and reoperation problems.

Heart valve analysis: valve opening and closing

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           I chose this complex topic of heart valves and scaffolding because I believe that this technology and science is amazing that we can create heart valves out of existing human cells as well as polymers and biological materials. I find this topic intriguing because of how important it is to have functioning heart valves to make sure we have circulation throughout our body, to and from our heart. I have always found the heart to be very interesting and the cardiac muscles and heart valves are a major part of development to keep the body perfusing. Working as a medical scribe in the ED I see people with cardiovascular issues on a daily basis and sometimes have valve issues such as mitral valve prolapse and mitral valve regurgitation and different valve malfunctions that require a valve replacement. These valve replacements are usually referred to as "pig valves" which are tissue valves that typically last 10-15 years. These valve replacements have extended people's life expectancy and they were able to live a full life with this procedure.

New Discoveries in the World of Alzheimer's Disease

            As I am away at school and my grandparents get older and older, I often find myself worrying about their health and overall well-being.  Will there ever be a time when I come home and they no longer recognize me?  The thought of this is very frightening. Much information regarding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unknown.  Although Alzheimer’s has not personally affected anyone close to me, 40 million people worldwide are currently suffering from this incurable disease.  I cannot imagine how heartbreaking it must be to watch the memory of a loved one progressively deteriorate.  Unfortunately there are still no reliable cures, effective therapies, and early diagnostic methods available that indicate AD before it has already progressed to major memory loss.

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Feast or Famine: Increasing Reproductive Success in Food Animals

In 2050 the worldwide population is expected to reach upwards of 9.6 billion people.  A global food crisis could result from this drastic jump in population.  What would happen to the population if there wasn’t enough food to feed everyone?  

Mice: A New Model for Environmental Effects on Parkinson's Disease

            Growing up, I remember my grandfather suffering from Parkinson's disease. Most people reading this probably know someone who has Parkinson's disease. If this is the case, you may be aware that there are not many forms of treatment for this disease. However, progress is being made in this direction.

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Effects of Atrazine in Quails

   Most people today will use some sort of pesticide on their flowers. It is widely practiced because after investing so much time and money into growing beautiful flowers you want to keep them looking beautiful. I mean honestly, there is nothing worse than coming home to find your once beautiful daisies chewed up and spat out by a family of beetles. It is even more common in the agricultural industry to use heavy duty pesticides. The crop farmers want to have the highest yield they can, doesn’t everyone want the most bang for their buck? Most people wouldn’t stop and think twice about what these pesticides might be doing to the environment. 

Triazine chemical structure

Location, Location, Location: The Importance of Microenvironment Context by Mina J. Bissell

In our world nowadays it is virtually impossible to find someone who has not been affected by cancer in one way or another. There are millions of people diagnosed with cancer each year and there are countless different forms of treatment between surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, precision medicine, etc. but are they all really working? Mina Bissell, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, says no.

In the article “Mina J. Bissell: Context Matters” from the Trends in Cancer journal Bissell shares her revolutionary thoughts on cancer as a disease, the tumor microenvironment that dictates cancer, and possible treatment plans for the future. She claims we need to start looking at cancer as an abnormal organ rather than an assortment of genetically mutated, misfit cells and has developed sufficient evidence to support the notion that the microenvironment is responsible for tissue and organ specificity. Since cancer is an organ-specific disease this means that the key to this devastating disease could also be hidden in the architecture of these cells and tissues.  

Cell Death: A Requirement for Embryo Survival

If someone were to tell you that cell death is a necessity in order for an embryo to develop properly, you may think that they were crazy.  This may seem counterintuitive.  It appears that it would only make sense for cells to be continuously growing and dividing during development, instead of killing themselves.  However, programmed cell death, known as apoptosis, is now recognized as not only normal, but as a requirement of proper development.

Early Developmental, Tempermental and Educational Problems in 'Substance Use Disorder' Patients with and Without ADHD. Does ADHD make a Difference?

For a parent like me with a hyper active three year old little boy, the thought of ADHD definitely crosses my mind often. I am sure I am not the only parent that wonders that about their child, I can't be the only one. This study looked into patients that had substance use disorders or SUDs for short.

Could Low B-Vitamin Nourishment Predispose Children to Developmental Autism?

         What if I told you that low folate (B9) and vitamin B12 nourishment could be a precursor to the development of autism spectral diseases? Would you make sure that your family and loved ones get enough of these nutrients so that you would not have to worry about such disorders? A recent study focused on children in Omani populations where data on these vitamins were not that readily maintained, in order to learn more about the correlations between low nourishment of B-vitamins with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

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CRISPR-Cas9: Editing and Engineering the Blueprints of Life

Every cell in our body contains a copy of our genome.  From this single blueprint, differential gene expression allows for a variety of structures and functions.  DNA consists of two strands of nucleotides twisted into a double helix and held together by a simple pairing rule.  Genes shape who we are individually and as a species.  Genes also have profound effects on our health.  Some genes can specifically influence our risk for disease.  In order to understand the role of different genes, we need a way to control and manipulate them, and further observe the effects of these changes.

Such control and manipulation is not an easy feat.  Recently, a new method, CRISPR-Cas9, has dramatically improved our ability to edit DNA.

A healthy heart is important right?

Most people would agree that a healthy heart is an important thing to have but not everybody is lucky enough to be born with a healthy heart. Development of the heart is very complex due to the fact that it goes through a lot of morphological (structural)  changes and all of the changes are controlled by genes. This makes gene expression very important. One of the important proteins that affects gene expression is chromodomain-helicase-DNA-binding protein 7 (CHD7). This protein is a large ATP dependent nucleosome remodeling protein which mean that this protein is responsible for helping with gene expression enhancers. When this gene is not working properly it affects transcription (part of turning genetic information into proteins) of the DNA and causes people to have CHARGE which causes a large amount of congenital heart defects.

DNA Methylation and Neural Tube Defects: A Closer Look at Spina Bifida

Did you know that neural tube defects are among the most common form of human birth defects? These defects result in the abnormal development of the brain, spine, or spinal cord. Often, this occurs within the first month of pregnancy, and the reasons behind these disorders are unclear. There are about 8 babies born in the U.S. each day that are affected and 300,000 cases identified each year. Among neural tube defects, spina bifida is one of the most common. Spina bifida occurs when the neural tube does not close properly during fetal development (image 1). This can then leave a bulge in the skin in the area that is affected, or in severe cases, the skin could be open with the nerves exposed.

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Don’t Do Drugs, Do Essential Oils

When is the last time you’ve used drugs? No, not illegal drugs but either prescription or over-the-counter medications to help get rid of your headache, allergies, or other aches and pains. People tend to pop pills to get instant relief, but wouldn’t you want to know exactly was it being put in your body than trusting a plastic label? Well, curiosity got the best of me so I decided to dig a little deeper about home remedies and found that plant essential oils might be the answer to our problems. Essential oils are compounds obtained by distillation or solvent extraction from aromatic plants, herbs, or spices (Diaz-Sanchez et. al 2015). Plant essential oils have recently been a hot topic of debate because they’ve been used since ancient times and are still being reported to provide major health benefits. They are over 3,000 essential oils known today!

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CRISPR/Cas9: The Versatile DNA Manipulator

When we hear bacteria, our first reaction is usually to grab the hand sanitizer.  So it is surprising to learn that a protein found in some bacteria has become one of the most widely used ways to manipulate DNA.  This protein, CRISPR, is used by bacteria to cut up viral DNA before it can be used to make more viruses.  Scientists have manipulated the protein to have even more functions, as summarized in Schaeffer’s and Nakata’s article.

Cpf1: A New Member of the CRISPR Family

     The subject of genome editing has been an increasingly important one in recent years. The possibility of editing the genomes of organisms provides scientists and genetic engineers seemingly endless opportunities.  By using enzymes to cut DNA, remove potentially harmful genes, and insert new ones, scientists have the ability to edit genomes at a whim. With the constant discovery of new systems there are more and more possibilities every day.

     The recent discovery of a new system, CRISPR Cpf1, that is far superior to many previously known methods of editing, promises even more advances.

Bringing Sound to Silent Worlds

Most of us take for granted the sounds we hear every single day; whether it’s your loved one’s voice, the birds chirping or the cars driving by. Just imagine living in complete silence. Unfortunately this is what over 1,000,000 people, in the United States alone, experience on a daily basis. Deafness can pose numerous challenges and can often make simple tasks more difficult.

The Restoration of Hearing Loss

           Did you know that you have inner hair cells in your inner ear? These little hairs are crucial in our ability to hear and to keep our balance. If someone has damage to these little hairs in his or her inner ear then they will not have the ability to hear or to maintain balance. A scientific study was done to figure out how to regenerate these little hairs to be able to restore hearing and balance for those who have lost these capabilities. 

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The Inside Anatomy of the Ear

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