MINI ME MOUSE

Just like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, you too can have your own Mini Me. A mini me mouse that is. However, this Mini Me is not an evil sidekick for diabolical plans, it is created to improve your health. These mice receive a transplant of your tissue and, because their immune systems have been suppressed, they will mimic your immune system. This breakthrough makes it so doctors can take risks and test possible cures on a mouse rather than a patient. Through testing different combinations of drugs on mice, doctors are able to see which combinations work the best without causing harm to the patient themselves. This improves the personalization of treatments. Instead of merely going off of a genetic profile, doctors are able to see the results on an exact replica of your immune system.

A team of Australian researchers were working on a patient with pancreatic cancer, trying to find a treatment for him. They took a piece of the man’s tumor tissue and put it in a mouse whose immune system they had suppressed. On this mouse they tested a drug that had been approved by gene screening but would have been risky to try out on a human patient. Instead of risking further harm to the patient, the researchers tested the drug on the mouse and found that the tumor shrank in the mice that had been treated. This was a huge breakthrough.

The only scientific problem with this discovery is that it sometimes could take too long to create the “avatar” mouse, treat it, analyze the results, and treat the patient. The man studied by the Australians died before treatment could be administered. The obvious social problem with this breakthrough is the attitude of animal rights activists. Animal testing is a very controversial subject and it is very likely that several groups will be against it.

Whether this mouse avatar future actually does come about or not, it is interesting to think about walking into the hospital or your doctor’s office and instead of worrying about which treatment is most likely to succeed, your doctor will simply order a mouse avatar for you. Then the only step is to go home and wait for the test results as with any other health screening.

Posted By Erica Bonnell(1)

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-03/personal-mouse-avatars-will-model-your-medical-problems

Possible Cure to Red Blood Cell Disorders

Just recently a group of scientists tested a type of gene therapy that can put an end to sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia. The newly developed gene has a healthy beta globin gene that promotes a cell's hemoglobin production. With this new gene, the cells that were lacking this beta globin gene or have a non functioning can now hope to produce hemoglobin. And this type of therapy would bear few risks due to the fact that this new gene can be tested on a blood sample before it's actually given to you. By giving these new cells a functioning beta globin gene this can lead to the cure of beta thalassemia. The success rate in a process of gene therapy can be quite difficult though because when the gene is injected it will randomly place itself, meaning the gene could not be expressed, so an insulator is made to lure the gene into the genome area increasing the success rate of gene therapy.

With these new findings maybe it can be possible to master gene therapy and be able to replace any dysfunctional gene with a functional one. This can lead to the cure of many genetic disorders such as PKU.

Posted by Khoa Chu (A)

A Surgeon's Solution to Diabetes

While Type II, or Adult-Onset, Diabetes has tripled in the U.S. over the last three decade, its treatment has lagged sorrily behind. The most proven 'cure' of the disease is weight loss - certainly not an easy task. However, it did not pass unnoticed that weight loss due to surgery was enough to alter the level of gut hormones and in some cases send the disease into remission. Now the AAMC recommends gastric bypass for those with Type II Diabetes and a B.M.I. over 35. Recent research suggests an even broader recommendation.

A study conducted at Catholic University of Rome found a 75 percent remission rate of the disease after gastric bypass and an astounding 95 percent rate following biliopancreatic diversion - a surgery not performed in the United States. Both surgeries effectively shrink the stomach, altering the transition into the small intestine and the digestion of food. A similar study in Cleveland showed 42 percent rate for gastric bypass. The results may lie heavily in the hands of the surgeon, as these surgeries were all performed by those at the top of their field and it is yet to be seen if it the same result is found by a larger sample. However, 200,000 bariatric surgeries are performed each year so even modest results could have a resounding positive influence over the control of diabetes.

Posted by James Fargnoli (A)

Cameron: Earth's deepest spot desolate, foreboding

Filmmaker James Cameron has come up with some truly other world like ideas in the past but that wasn’t enough for him. Cameron, best known for his fantasy movie Avatar, has recently gone where not many other human beings have gone before. He has traveled 7 miles down under water into the deepest part of the world that we know of, the Mariana Trench. Cameron traveled to such great depths using a deep-sea submarine which he helped design called the Deepsea Challenger. The descent took around 2 and half hours and the ascent took a little over an hour. He has recorded some footage of the journey but plans to go back numerous times and film lots more 3D footage which will eventually air on National Geographic. Cameron described the setting as surreal and other worldly, and compared it to that of being on the moon. He couldn’t believe how alone he was and how truly desolate the area was. Being down that deep was kind of scary and the only other organisms he saw were small shrimp like creatures no longer than an inch in length. The submarine that he traveled in was somewhat cramped and uncomfortable, with the heat of the machinery making it over 100 degrees Fahrenheit inside the sub. As he got further and further down however, the temperature sharply fell as the surrounding waters were 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Being down so deep, the surrounding pressure of the water actually shrunk the submarine by 3 inches.

This is a great adventure for science. As technology progresses it is fantastic how we can now reach places that before we could only dream of reaching. I can’t wait to see the footage of this truly unique part of the world. The discoveries that await Cameron and his team are now endless. People have been incredibly eager to see what its like down in the deep ocean depths and this journey will finally give people some insight into the area.

Posted by Nicco Ciccolini (A)

Fossil Discovery in China May Be New Unknown Human Species

As scientists, we're always constantly finding new fossil records that are breaking our conventional thoughts on our ancestors. We have set ideals on how we as a species evolved through time to the current state we're at now as "modern humans". But once in a while we stumble upon ancient evidence that is more bizarre than we could have ever imagined, and raises more questions than answers. We're always trying to piece together the puzzle that is our evolutionary ancestry. Each time we stumble across a new fossil record, it adds to that puzzle.

In China, they found new fossils that are carbon dated between 11,500 and 14,500 years old, precluding that they were around when modern humans were in China. Scientists working on this new found group haven't yet scientifically supported whether they're a whole other group closely related to humans such as neanderthals, or actually human. One reason is that it's difficult to even discern what makes us homo sapiens to begin with, let alone distinguish a possible whole new species of ape.

Scientists are interested in these new fossil records because they lived in caves in China that has evidence of them cooking Red deer, a large extinct deer, during the time when early man was starting to farm. Yet, they have odd anatomical features not congruent to our understanding of our ancestors, which is odd and exciting. The red deer cave people as they're called for their living habitats and diet, have prominent brow ridges, thick skull bones, flat upper faces with a broad nose, jutting jaws that lack a human-like chin, brains moderate in size by ice age human standards, large molar teeth, and primitively short parietal lobes — brain lobes at the top of the head associated with sensory data. All of these features are found in ancient humans hundreds of thousands of years ago, not just a couple thousands of years as these fossils suggest. It's fascinating just to think about this. Simply, the red deer cave people are possibly a whole new branch of human, as they don't fit with our conventional thought of humans during this time.

Now that the studying scientists have covered the possibility of finding a new human species. It opens up questions that have yet to be answered. Such as, if these primitive human features did survive up to modern humans, why did they go extinct all of a sudden? Did this new fossil group genetically interbreed itself with modern day humans? Or did they fall in line with neanderthals? What whatever the possible outcome of their study, it's a evolutionary breakthrough for humans in understanding our development as a species.

http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-chinese-fossils-may-human-species-150805074.html

Posted By: Andy Zou (C)

Invasive Snakes

Invasive species introduced by humans can wreak havoc on any ecosystem. One prime example is the snake problem in South Florida. Florida has the highest number of nonnative herptiles out of any state. The problem arises from the trend of Floridans buying huge snakes, then realizing they are unable to care for such a cumbersome animal, then releasing it into the wild for lack of a better way to get rid of it.The wet, swampy biomes of Southern Florida are the perfect habitat for large reptiles like snakes and crocodiles, so as soon as they are released the snakes began feeding on native wildlife and reproducing. The invading snakes routinely devour deer, alligators, and people. Floridan legislature is currently trying to push a bill that would list the large pythons as an "injurious species," sort of an opposite to an endangered species. Their removal from the ecosystem, whether by capture or killing, would be permitted and encouraged. Purchase and sale of the offending species is already illegal. Recent years have shown a trend of decreasing snake populations, hopefully meaning that efforts are being successful. Reclaiming an ecosystem so heavily affected by an invasive species will be a very difficult task, but hopefully someday they will be able to restore the Everglades to their former glory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/us/florida-looks-for-curbs-on-some-snake-species.html?ref=snakes

Rhys Ursuliak

Tooth Fairy Contributes to Evolution

Browsing through a few science news web pages this afternoon, it dawned on me that there was a lot of information on two subjects. Frogs and teeth...even a fanged frog! The evolution of teeth suddenly became very interesting and I was overwhelmed with articles and battling with myself as to which article to read next. They all resonated the same message though: you are what you eat!

Teeth are extremely important, they are the tools to help us, as well as many other species, eat. They cut and grind food, but not all teeth are alike, and evolution has played a huge role in determining tooth size and shape. Scientists are able to observe various teeth shapes to determine diets and hypothesize about competition, dating back to the era of dinosaurs and older. Recent studies have shared that multituberculates, rodent-like mammals, that lived during the era of dinosaurs may have been able to use their teeth to outcompete dinosaurs since their teeth developed complex cusps that allowed them to devour newly spudding angiosperms, even accounting for increased body size from about the size of a mouse, eventually evolving to the size of beavers. Multituberculates, despite their toothy advantage, wouldn't last long as primates and other mammals developed similar complex back teeth (i.e. molars) and simpler front teeth, allowing for breaking down abundant vegetation and eventually multituberculates became extinct too.

Millions of years prior to dinosaurs existed, conodonts floated through the sea, vertebrates whose skeleton lies within their mouth. Scientists have measured their razor sharp teeth as the 'sharpest dental structures ever' but they are only 2 micrometers long! Despite lacking jaws, their sharpened weapons allowed them to attack with intense pressure in order to eat. Humans and other mammals, however, developed jaws and less complex, smoother teeth, such as molars, to increase force. Carnivorous animals, however, mimic conodonts, so that their sharp teeth can plow through meat and insects.

Of course, I could go on an on about evolution and teeth, but as stated before, the evolution of teeth is because we are what we eat. So next time you struggle with something chewy, tough or painful to your teeth, remember that millions of years development influenced the shape of your chompers today, and maybe it just wasn't meant to eat.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120314142044.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120314125921.htm

Karen-Maria Melendez Group C