Drafts

After making the correct diagnosis, the patient can participate in several types of therapeutic treatments and clinical trials. There are several ongoing and completed trials for treating retinitis pigmentosa with gene therapy, drugs, oxygen therapy, stem cell transplantation and even acupuncture, that can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov. For instance, in a study performed by Rubens C. Siqueira, patients with severe retinitis pigmentosa were treated with an “intravitreal injection of autologous bone marrow stem cells” and evaluated monthly for an entire year with OCT and ERG. Results revealed a “1-line improvement in best-corrected visual acuity was measured in 4 patients 1 week after injection and was maintained throughout follow-up” and no detectable ERG responses. They concluded that since there were no adverse/toxic effects, it would be probable to conduct and investigate more types of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell therapies (Siqueira, 2011).
In another 2011 study, a RHO suppression and RHO replacement gene therapy was administered on a mouse model (P347S) with RHO-linked autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. Both 5-day-old and adult mice were injected with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors that were used to “deliver an RNA interference (RNAi)-based rhodopsin suppressor and a codon-modified rhodopsin replacement gene resistant to suppression due to nucleotide alterations at degenerate positions over the RNAi target site” (Millington, 2011). By suppressing and replacing the mutated photoreceptors, the researchers predicted that they should function similarly to wild-type photoreceptors. They found that the ONL completely disappeared in untreated mice (the control group with the disease) and mice that were treated rhodopsin was expressed in the ONL. ERG comparisons between both groups showed significant improved responses when both types of vectors were administered. They also concluded that this type of approach can possibly pertain to any patient with RHO-linked regardless of the mode of action of a particular RHO mutation in future clinical studies (Millington, 2011). Consequently, retinitis pigmentosa is uncurable, however it seems that gene therapy could provide some type of solution.

Siqueira, R C, et al. “Intravitreal Injection of Autologous Bone Marrow-Derived Mononuclear Cells for Hereditary Retinal Dystrophy: a Phase I Trial.” Retina (Philadelphia, Pa.)., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 June 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293313?dopt=Abstract.

Millington-Ward, Sophia, et al. “Suppression and Replacement Gene Therapy for Autosomal Dominant Disease in a Murine Model of Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa.” Molecular Therapy, vol. 19, no. 4, 11 Jan. 2011, pp. 642–649. NCBI, doi:10.1038/mt.2010.293.

Over the past few years, mail-in DNA testing kits have become exceptionally popular. These kits can be used in several ways. Some kits are focused for those who wish to learn more about their family history. People can use these testing services, which use their DNA to compare in massive proprietary databases, to discover where their family comes from. My own DNA showed ethnicity estimates in seven different regions. I had always thought I was almost completely Irish, but thanks to my DNA test, I now know that is not the case. Websites like AncestryDNA can also be used to help you create a family tree which, with the help of U.S. Census reports and other documents, can trace back your family for generations. I was able to find out about family members from five generations back. Your family tree can also become linked to other family trees when you have ancestors in common. AncestryDNA will also use you DNA test to find other members that your test indicates you are related to you. Ancestry found 159 predicted third and fourth cousins from my test. Other Websites, like 23 and Me, can analyze your DNA to inform you about health conditions. This can be taken further by using you genomic DNA in the website Promethease, which uses studied SNP’s to tell you what your genotype indicates. Here you can find out if you’re more of less likely to have certain diseases. Other SNP’s will indicate if things such as your muscle fiber make up.

Our project describes the relationship between the arthropods and the distance between the reptile room that's located on the 5th floor. We measured the distance of each floor from the reptile room and displayed a graph of live, dead, spider webs of each floor by collecting the data with 2 separate trials. With the research done and the data collected, we found out that the floor with less traffic by humans naturally has more arthropods compared to the 1st floor with the heaviest human traffic containing the least arthropods which makes sense. Human traffic is just a disruption or a interference of their environment so there is going to be less arthropods present in it. Look at our graphs and our data along with our background, abstract, and discussion. Mostly importantly our results to see how the numbers of arthropods are affected by the distance of the reptile room to the arthropods themselves. Overall, it was an excellent project and I'm glad it was done as we learned a lot. Big shoutout to Professor Brewer for helping everybody.

My family history went back several generations. On my father’s side of the family, we could only trace back to my grandparents. My grandmother, Rita Harvey, was an orphan and never knew her parents. My grandfather, Michael Harvey, was not adopted but I could not find any family history for him. They were both from Ireland and the databases are not as big and don’t go as far back as they do in the U.S.

               On my mother’s side of the family, a great amount of tracing back was able to be done. My mother’s parents were Edwin Cavanagh and Jackie Joy Singer. On my Jackie’s side of the tree, I was able to find out her parent’s names were William Singer and Hilda Victory. This part of the family was found to come from Texas (William) and Louisiana (Hilda). Which I found interesting because I had always thought the family had been all located in New York after coming to America from Ireland.

The relationship between the distance from the reptiles to arthropods can be explained by other studies done in the past. An example of a phenomenon that explains this relationship is the luxury effect, which is strong particularly for lizards. Luxury effect displays links between urban biodiversity and sociology-economics (Litwhiler 2016). Studies have shown that factors such as climates and environmental factors play a key role when it comes to living organisms, and reptiles are no exception (Lee and Lim 2016). There are other factors that cause less arthropods, such as foot traffic. Since the first floor being the floor has the most traffic, it will have the least number of arthropods or signs of arthropods, as compared to the 4th floor that doesn’t have as much foot traffic. Since foot traffic causes a disturbance of other living organisms, there are less arthropods present. By critically observing and counting up the numbers of the arthropods and how they contain different physical features whether they be live or dead, we can observe and study how the relationship of the two affects each other.

Welcome! In our experiment we examined the relationship between the number of arthropods on window sills in Morrill IV South and their distance from the reptile room, which is located on the secret fifth floor of the Morrill II building. Two different times, once last week and once this past week, we checked the window sills that look over the bridge connecting Morrill IV North to Morrill IV South on the first, second, third, and fourth floors. We were looking for live and dead bugs and also signs that they had been there, which include wings, webs, and cracks. We then used Google Earth Pro to measure the distance from each of these window sills to the reptile room. We used the luxury effect and foot traffic to explain our results. As you can see by our graphs, we generally found more of these bugs and signs on the upper floors, which are closer to the reptile room and have less foot traffic.

The purpose of this study is to examine how mutations are affected when different organisms, mutated or not mutated, are mated. Once that has been determined, tetrad analysis can then be used to determine linkage as well as the genotypes of given phenotypes. Yeast are an excellent candidate to test these with due to their simple phenotypes, small size, and quick growth. 

The findings of this lab were sound and gave a solid understanding of the passing of mutations to offspring as well as how to determine genotypes using tetrad analysis. The only thing that I would change about this lab is for a more conclusive tetrad cross to be constructed. Because of the certain dead cultures, it is impossible to tell whether the genes are linked or not. Presenting a complete tetrad cross would allow students to more accurately predict whether the genes in question are linked or not. 

As the results state, HA0 is the only haploid yeast cell that can grow without adenine, while HA1, HA2, and HB1 cannot grow without adenine. This shows that HA0 can synthesize its own adenine, while HA1, HA2, and HB1 have mutations which halt adenine production by the yeast cell, though it is unknown where these mutations are in the genome. 

Two adenine deficient plates were then divided into four sections each. The first plate was labeled with HA0, HA1, HA2, and HB1, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast type lightly spread onto it. The second plate was labeled with HB1xHA0, HB1xHA1, HA1xHA2, and HB1xHA2, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast cross from the incubated plate lightly spread onto it. For the spreading process, a clean toothpick was used to drag a small amount of the required yeast in a straight line near the edge of the plate. Then a new toothpick was used to drag a single line up from the first line of yeast cells and then spread them in a zig zag fashion. The goal of this process was to spread the yeast cells to roughly one cell thickness. The two adenine deficient agar plates were then left to incubate at 30oC for a week.