Writing in Biology

    Devil face tumor disease or DFTD is exterminating populations of Tasmanian devils throughout Tasmania due to its ability to be transmitted between individuals. The cancer is able to do this not through the use of a virus but instead, the cancer cell itself is able to bypass the devil’s immune system and colonize the host's tissue. This study looked into the mechanics of how this happens and how it can be treated. The cancer cells go undetected by the host's immune system due to the low genetic diversity of the MHC gene and overall poor genetic diversity, and inbreeding of the populations of Tasmanian devils throughout the island. MHC gene helps the body create T-cells and immune responses to tumors. The cancer cells express this gene allowing it to evade the host's immune system because it recognizes it as its own cell due to the poor genetic diversity of this gene. Methods to help stop this have been attempting to develop a vaccine, keeping healthy populations of Tasmanian devils in captivity, and introducing new Tasmanian devils into areas with very low genetic diversity in hope of creating resistant individuals.

The fact that a type of cancer can be transmissible is very scary and somewhat intimidating. Many populations of Tasmanian Devils don’t stand a chance against this cancer and their future is looking very bleak. The one bright side to this disease is that we can study transmissible cancer. These cancers are extremely rare with only a few other cases in the entire world. Understanding how these cancers work will help us develop new methods of treatment in case more diseases like this develop in the future. Transmissible cancers are extremely dangerous and have shown that they can obliterate a species in no time at all. I believe that studying this cancer and finding a cure for it is going to be incredibly beneficial for humans and the Tasmanian devils.

Semiarid deserts are primarily found in Europe, Northern Asia, and the western states of the United States and are significantly less harsh as dry deserts. Semiarid deserts have two main seasons, summer and winter. The semiarid desert has an average temperature of 23° C during the summer, though it can reach 38° C during the day and 10° C at night. During the winter, temperatures can reach as low as -3° C. Average rainfall is very low, at 2-4 cm a year (The Desert Biome).

Although rainfall is minimal, dew accumulates on vegetation during the night, which can equal or even surpass the total annual rainfall. The terrain is comprised of relatively flat land surrounded by large rocky mountains. The soil found in semiarid deserts consists of loose innutritious rock underneath a layer of fine sand. This type of soil composition makes it hard for large vegetation to survive, leaving only small trees, shrubs, and durable cacti to grow. Animals use the shade from this vegetation as protection from the sun. Because of the limited vegetation and food sources, animal populations are dispersed. The animals that have managed to survive in this climate are small and include lizards, snakes, and insects (Major Types of Deserts on Earth). These organisms, including the newly discovered Bradyrhinus gironi, or the American Rhingon, have been able to survive in this environment because they have adapted to the harsh conditions.

While women are more likely to graduate college on average, they have a higher concentration in majors such as humanities or education, and when compared to their male dominated counterparts such as computer science or engineering there is a clear variance in pay scale. This concept, known as the “between occupation” wage gap, is thought to be multifactorial, involving cultural barriers that inadvertently coerce women away from male-dominated fields.  Furthermore, there is evidence which suggests that maternal care and stereotypical gender roles at home have unintentional consequences regarding pay. Dueto the social stigma and innate desire to raise young, women typically work fewer hours or are only able to work part-time, which can affect merit based promotions or company favor. Additionally women, on average, have less experience due to career interruptions secondary to social events such as having children.

From 1979 through the 1990’s the wage gap had been consistently approaching an equilibrium, however, progress has stagnated over the past 20 years and the reason for this is unclear. Current, unadjusted statistical analysis shows that the typical woman, who represents the median value, makes 0.83 cents per every dollar a typical man makes per hour worked. However, this value does not take into other factors such as industry or education and more advanced studies have shown wage gaps of 8.4% when these variables are accounted for. While these factors clearly have a significant impact in tandem, the individual contributions of these differences are subject to questioning as well. Understanding the data and dynamics of both higher education and the industries that are dominated by women are crucial to correctly interpreting why this difference exists.

World War II opened the door for women to enter the workspace due to the large number of vacated positions that were available while the males of the country were overseas. Since this initial entry, rate of employed women has been steadily increasing. However, data shows that, on average, women have not been equally compensated since 1979 at the latest and this social issue has been dubbed the “gender pay gap”. Those who support this issue claim that women have been historically paid less on the dollar compared to their male counterparts due to conscious or subconscious discrimination secondary to long standing gender roles and responsibilities. There is debate on the validity of these claims and many have questioned the analysis of the data presented; claiming that these views exclude certain variables that can account for these differences. While it is clear that there is a difference between pay, the underlying source of this disparity has not been readily identified.

There are many issues regarding food safety and the current methods and infrastructure in place to track food products through the journey from farm to store shelf are not sufficient. There is no standardized system for tracking food and many processors handle it differently. When there are issues with contamination, lengthy and resource intensive traceback investigations must occur. Some distributors keep records in closed databases or on paper meaning they are not readily accessible or publicly available. Frank Yiannas, Walmart VP of food safety, mentioned in an interview that after giving staff a randomly selected package of mangoes, it required almost a full seven days to trace them back to the source.  In seven days, hundreds of thousands of people can be significantly harmed by a contaminated product.

Foodborne illness carries substantial health and economic consequences. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that food related illness is responsible for 600 million illness and 400,000 deaths annually. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that foodborne disease affects 179 million Americans annually. Additionally, Robert Scharff, an economist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), estimates that foodborne illness costs the US fifty to ninety billion dollars each year. This is an ongoing problem that has not been appropriately addressed and we see outbreaks every year such as the papaya salmonella instance this year and Chipotle's E.coli outbreak two years ago.

Through complementation analysis, unknown mutations within the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) adenine biosynthesis pathway were identified. Studying the ability of unknown mutant colonies to produce successful colonies with known mutants revealed the identity of the unknown mutation as either a mutation in Ade1 or Ade2. Four mutant strains were examined, two of the A mating type and two of the alpha mating type. The A type yeast produced living colonies when crossed with a known Ade2 mutant as well as the unknown alpha type mutants. The alpha mutants produced living colonies when crossed with a known Ade1 mutant as well as the unknown A type. Using complementation analysis it was determined that both unknown A mutations were in the Ade1 gene and both unknown alpha mutations were in the Ade2 gene.

I agree with you about people eventually pushing the limits with genetic modification. I'm not sure if I completely agree with doctors truly knowing what to expect with certain medicines. Sometimes there are medicines that get cheated into the system just like how certain variations of genetic modification today are being used to say, cure diseases. I'm not saying that those variations of genetic modification are being cheated into the system since they're already being used quite a bit. In a way I just think those medicines and genetic modification are similar and are already being used. Therefore, I don't think doctors completely know what to expect when it comes to certain medicines either, not to mention genetic modification.