Writing in Biology

Summary of Marquis, “Why Abortion Is Immoral”

In this article, Marquis argues that abortion is immoral with his “future-like-ours” argument. Marquis compares his argument with several other arguments regarding abortion; including the discontinuation and desire accounts.  

1. What makes killing wrong?

Marquis begins section II by discussing many possible explanations one may give for the immorality of killing one another.

-        Explanation 1: Brutalization. The first argument Marquis presents is simply that killing our own “brutalizes” the killer. However, Marquis refutes this explanation by arguing that to kill, one must be accustomed to the performance extremely immoral acts. Thus, the brutalization caused by murder does not provide an explanation for why killing is immoral.

-        Explanation 2: The loss others feel. Marquis then turns his attention to the idea that killing is wrong because of the loss that those who know the victim feel when that person is killed. However, Marquis argues against this by arguing that killing a hermit, who is isolated, would still be immoral even though there is no one to feel a loss by this hermit’s murder.

-        Explanation 3: Effect on the victim. Marquis then turns to what he argues is the true reason that killing is immoral; it’s effect on the victim. Marquis argues that those who are killed experience the greatest loss that one can experience; the loss of their future. This argument becomes Marquis’ main argument in the paper which he refers to as the “future-like-ours” argument.

Ephrin receptor tyrosine kinases divereged from other tyrosine kinases throughout the course of evolution. The divergence came from the response to specific activation and regulatory signals that require pairing kinase catlytics and regulatory functions. The similarities between the two receptors include everything from structure, organization, function and the types of pathway they activate. Juxtamembrane and sterile a motif were both found to be linker regions to the respective kinase domain. These linker regions are responsible for increasing kinase activity and regulating the pathways functionality. These kinase proteins are responisble for everything from protein synthesis and activation to hormonal regulation and secretion. 

If you look at a human embryo next to the embryo of a reptile, or that of a bird, you will see striking similarities between the groups. But why is this? If each goes on to take a completely different form, then why would each start from nearly the same point? These embryonic forms have remained the same since the branching of these species from a common ancestor some millions of years ago. I suppose evolutionarily, these embryonic forms provided everything needed to grow into completely separate body types, and any change wouldn’t have been beneficial enough to take place. This is just one of the many vestiges left from our evolutionary past.

The study done shows the mercury levels in different organism’s blood, by tracking these levels the mercury can be tracked as it moves through the food web. This looked at species around the Shenandoah River in Virgina where there was mercury contamination. The experiment tested 13 terrestrial-feeding bird species that bred within 50 m of the river, 5 aquatic-feeding species that had direct contact and species at an uncontaminated site. Both aquatic and terrestrial-feeding birds had similar levels which were significantly higher than the uncontaminated birds. This suggests that the birds do not need direct contact to be affected; if something they ate was contaminated it would be passed on to them. Predators typically only receive 10% of the energy from their prey, so they must eat more to receive sufficient energy for survival; this means if spiders are contaminated and the birds must eat many to get sufficient energy, then they will have much more mercury in their system then one individual spider.

I also researched some ways in targeting KRAS mutations. From the article titled, “‘Unexpected’ Vulnerability Creates Treatment Opportunity in Aggressive Type of Lung Cancer,” there has been studies done where XPO1 was used as an inhibitor. Since it was discovered that KRAS mutations rely on the protein, XPO1. Overall, it states that an XPO1 inhibitor would lead to a decrease in size of the tumor in NSCLC with KRAS mutations. Blocking XPO1’s activity lead to a disruption of the signaling pathway controlled by NFκB. NFκB is known to affects the activities genes involved in stimulating cell survival.

So far throughout our project we have discussed about using a protective coating around the drug. This protective coat will be made of a detergent containing a pH of 5.5. Detergents are able to disrupt membranes due to the amphipathic nature of both cellular membranes and detergent molecules. This means that they possess the characteristics of having both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. Detergent molecules are able to pull apart membranes. Some aspects I don’t fully understand yet are how we will be targeting and delivery our drug in a way that won’t affect other systems or pathways in our bodies. I still have to research ways in which drugs can be delivered in a way that they target the pulmonary vein. One way we could assay our treatments is by monitoring whether the tumor has spread through scans if we were working on real patients.  We would have to perform tumor genomic assays. At the molecular level we would have to be monitor the overexpression of AATF. But also, other types of cells to see if our drug could have programmed cell death in places where it shouldn’t have. 

Malignant transformation depends on robust mechanisms to override DNA damage response signaling to preserve their proliferation speed despite the genotoxic abrasions.  According to the article, “AATF suppresses apoptosis, promotes proliferation and is critical for Kras-driven lung cancer,” tumor cells rely on the effective suppression of p53-mediated induction of apoptosis regardless of their genomic instability either through TP53-inactivating mutations or through counteracting signaling molecules. In addition, it has also been known that lower levels of AATF protein expression correlate with higher expression rates of p53, Puma, and cleaved Caspase-3. This is all after genotoxic stress. AATF is also referred to as Che-1 and from “The anti-apoptotic factor Che-1/AATF links transcriptional regulation, cell cycle control, and DNA damage response,” article it states, that its phosphorylated by ATM and Chk2 and this leads to the stabilization of AAATF. As a result, it increases p53 and p21 expression contributing to stopping cell growth in response to DNA damage.

This plant is found in the third room of Durfee Conservatory when entering street side from Thatcher Road.  Once in the third room, Oncidium Sharry Baby is found on the right side against the wall on the bottom of the three shelves.  It is a tall orchid with a cluster of small, fragrant purple and white flowers.  The first photo, located in upper left side of the figure, is taken standing directly in front of the plant with the white sign ‘Fragrant Flower’ facing the photographer.  This first photo is labeled ‘A’ in the figure.  

The second picture taken is a close up of the flowers.  There is a single string of blooms coming off to the right of the ‘Fragrant Flower’ sign, and this photo is taken with the last bloom in the bottom left of the photo.  This photo, located in the upper right side of the figure, is labeled ‘B’.

The final part of the figure is a map of where this flower can be located.  This orchid is natively found in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.  This figure is created on Inkscape, using a world map with country outlines found with a google search.  The countries listed are filled in with turquoise, and the map is below below the two images of the specimen.  This final part of the figure is labeled ‘C’.

Anthurium

            Attached to Morrill Science Building III is the Ray Ethan Torrey Botanical Collection at the Morrill Greenhouses. Viewing the abundance of plant species was disappointing in the main collection holding as well as Collection House A. It was not until Collection House B where I viewed what I sought, potted on the floor next to the opening leading to the further portion of Collection House B. Getting closer I saw in more detail, the bright pink leaf with erected yellow spadix of Anthurium andraeanum, also called the flamingo flower. Taking my phone, I took a picture capturing the 3 prominent leaves with their spadices, ensuring to also capture the second pot to its left, which contained a smaller pink leaf and its spadix surrounded by the green leaves with the absence of these spadices. Coming out with a centered image of the lower standing Anthurium andraeanum on the left and the taller standing on the right (Fig. A). Examining the closest of the 3 prominent leaves with spadices, I took another picture with a birds-eye-view to capture the pink leaf and its spadix parallel with its green leaf which lied below (Fig. B). Intriguing to the image, was the shape of the pink leaf which resemble that of an inverted heart with the spadix up the center showing the green leaf as if it was connected in one line with the pink leaf. Further research pinpointed that Anthurium andraeanum is native to Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuelan Antilles, and Windward Islands, coloring these areas red on a blank map of North and South America (Fig. C) (Anthurium… n.d.). Congregating these figures with the picture of 3 prominent leaves and one smaller leaf above the lone leaf with spadix picture on the left portion. Both beside the vertically mapped range of the Anthurium andraeanum, which lay the height of the combined first two figures.

Photobleaching of LLC-Pk1 pig kidney epithelial cells was done with an open shutter and no neutral density filters for all three types of fluorophores. Time-lapse imaging data was collected and analyzed graphically for all three fluorophores (Figure 2). It is apparent that the DAPI labeled dsDNA has the highest initial intensity, and fastest rate of decay (Table 1). The rhodamine labeled f-actin holds both the lowest initial intensity value and rate of decay (Table 1). Fluorescein labeled tubulin have midrange values for both initial intensity and rate of decay (Table 1).