Writing in Biology

ONC201 also demonstrates synergistic effects with other cancer therapeutics to induce apoptosis in various types of cancers. In a study of glioblastoma, ONC201 synergized with ABT263 (Navitoclax), a small molecule inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein family and BH3-mimetic, to induce apoptosis. Reduction of tumors were observed in vivo without any adverse side effects or toxicity (Karpel-Massler et al. 2015). In another study involving pancreatic adenocarcinoma, ONC201 activated both extrinsic (TRAIL-caspase-8-dependent) and intrinsic (caspase-9-dependent) apoptosis pathways while synergizing with gemcitabine, a common chemotherapy for this cancer, to inhibit Panc-1 xenograft growth in mice (Zhang et al. 2016). This combination therapy also increased the mice’s survivability.

The idea of engineering a liposome with three monoclonal antibodies attached to one liposome presents a daunting challenge.  Additionally, the binding affinity between each monoclonal antibody to its antigen must be considered carefully. It is important that the interaction between each antibody and antigen is relatively weak.  If one is too strong, the liposome will bind and inject its contents to healthy cells that merely express the antigen in normal levels, leading to cell death. To prevent metastasis, it will be possible to engineer liposomes with the respective antibodies for the three surface antigens as needed.  However, if these tumors mutate and/or metastasize and lose the overexpression of CA125, KASH5, or HSF1, assaying the new tumor cells and designing a new treatment in a timely manner will likely be an insurmountable task.   

The idea of engineering a liposome with three monoclonal antibodies attached one liposome presents a daunting challenge.  Additionally, the binding affinity between each monoclonal antibody to its antigen must be considered carefully. It is important that the interaction between each antibody and antigen is relatively weak.  If one is too strong, the liposome will bind and inject its contents to healthy cells that merely express the antigen in normal levels, leading to cell death.

There are several theories to why animals must sleep. Some of these theories include the "repair and restoration theory," "evolutionary theory," and "information consolidation theory." The repair and restoration theory suggests that the physiological processes are restored and revitalized when organisms sleep. This also ties into the other theories, which are likewise interconnected. The evolutionary theory suggests that sleep was an adaptation that was helpful in reducing activity when energy needed to be conserved due to lack of food in the environment. Information consolidation, similarly to the repair and restoration theory, suggests that sleep helps process information gathered from the day, and plays a role in helping processing information from the following period of being awake. However, these theories do not fully capture why it is necessary to sleep, and some biologists have made claims that sleep is one of evolution's biggest flaws, because sleeping organisms are prone to threats such as predators.

Due to the importance of coastal wetlands, efforts have been made to devise effective conservation strategies to halt their destruction and potentially aid in their recovery. One method is through government regulation. By 1984, over half of all the wetlands in the U.S. had been drained or filled for development or agriculture. Congress responded to these alarming figures by passing two critical wetland conservation and restoration programs administered by National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to slow or reverse these trends. These two programs are the Wetland Conservation Provisions which was authorized in the 1985 Farm Bill, and the Wetlands Reserve Program which was later authorized in the 1990 Farm Bill. Enactment of the 1985 Farm Bill dramatically reduced agricultural impacts when compared to pre-1985 wetland impacts. Through these two programs, NRCS works with farmers and ranchers to maintain or increase important wetland benefits, while ensuring their ability to continue to produce food and fiber (Barras). Another strategy is to better communicate the economic benefit of healthy wetlands, in order to incentivize the private sector to take action. Using the latest modeling techniques, researchers from the conservation, engineering, and insurance sectors studied the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast United States in 2012, when New York and New Jersey were badly hit by storm surges. The study determined that more than $625 million in property damages were prevented during this catastrophe due to coastal wetlands along the Northeast coast. Promoting these advantages of wetlands may result in greater consideration in coastal development and habitat restoration decisions, and may provide greater incentives in the private sector to design their development projects in a sustainable way so as to conserve and restore these natural habitats.

A correlational study was conducted in attempt to see if blood pressure and brain volume are correlated. A MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure volume of the brain along with the blood pressure. Younger individuals presented a lower brain volume. The findings were concerning due to the fact that the participants were healthy. Which lead to the questions of if there were any other indications that could lead to a lower brain volume. The study that was conducted was a correlational study and we have to keep in mind that correlation does not cause causation. Though the brain is important to the body because all functions are based off the brain. The brain is part of the central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS is important for integrating information that is obtained and use it. The gray matter that is developed in the brain is where the neurons are housed and if having less of the gray matter could affect daily functions.

Predicting the energy level of an electron when activated by a photon is possible using the conservation of energy. If the energy before is equal to the energy after the interaction with the photon, then the respective energies become as follows: Ei+Ephoton=Ef. To calculate which energy levels are involved in this interaction, the information would need to be provided. The size of the boundry to which the electron is bound must be provided since the other factors are constants. The equation for the energy of an electron at an energy level n, is therefore En=(h^2)(n^2)/8mL^2, where h is planks constant of 6.626X10^-34J*s, n is the energy level, m is the mass of an electron (9.11X10^-31), and L is the provided length. Solving for the initial energy, then the energy of the photon will provide the final energy of the electron after interaction with the photon. To find the energy of the photon, the wavelength of the photon may be provided since the energy is E=hc/wavelength.

Allergies affect roughly 50 million Americans but are not well understood from a scientific standpoint. In an analysis from 2017 which used hospital admissions for anaphylaxis as a guideline, they found that food allergy rates have nearly doubled and that climate change is increasing the amount of pollen in the United States. The analysis helped deduce the most common allergies in America. They found that rye, followed by dust mites (D. farinae and D. pteronyssinus) are the most common allergies affecting approximately 20% of the population. Food, as well as indoor allergens, are much lower on the list and affect a small percent of the population (2%). This data was taken from a representative sample but the analysis found that tracking allergies is a difficult process. They noted that self-reported data is unreliable and gaining access to private diagnostic data is tricky because of patient confidentiality.

Kelly and Sears (2011)  “Limb specialization in living marsupial and eutherian mammals: constraints on mammalian limb evolution” aimed to test the argument that the functional requirement of newborn marsupials to crawl to the teat is constraining the evolution of the marsupial forelimb, based on two core hypotheses: first, that marsupial forelimbs are less specialized than eutherian forelimbs; and second, that marsupials tend to have more specialized hind limbs, whereas eutherians follow the opposite pattern and tend to have more specialized forelimbs. The first hypothesis was formulated based on the fact that marsupial forelimbs show a small range of possible forms, are very similar among different functional groups, and are less morphologically different from the average mammal than eutherian forelimbs are.   The second hypothesis was based on the fact that marsupial young have highly developed forelimbs and shoulders at birth because they are born premature and need to crawl up to the mother’s teat immediately after birth, where they attach and finish developing. This specialized morphology is necessary at such an early time in their development that the theory is that it prevents variation, and thus reduces the likelihood that marsupial forelimbs will evolve and specialize. The hind legs are not used in this post-birth crawl, which leaves them free to diverge and specialize. Eutherians, on the other hand,  tend to have more specialized forelimbs and less specialized hind limbs. The proposed theory is that eutherian hind limbs are functionally important in locomotion, which constrains how much their morphology can vary, but the forelimbs are free to evolve and diversify—the opposite of limb specialization seen in marsupials.

I do not have a very clear understanding of my personal genetic ancestry but am very curious about finding out more. My family has always said that I am a “mut” meaning my family comes from all over the world. Also, none of my family members have ever done any genetic testing (that we know of) so we aren’t completely sure on anything. My dad’s side of the family is easier to trace he has some Irish in him, along with French Canadian, and Swedish. There is probably a lot more to his side of the family but those are the ones we are more sure about (but not completely confident). My mom’s side of the family is a big guess because her family was displaced when issues with people of the Jewish religion arose. My nana believes that she is from Lithuania, but she only started mentioning this recently, it may be skewed because of her old age. When she had a better memory, she used to say that her family was from either Russia or Ukraine. I’m sure this will become more clear when I take the genetic tests and actually see where it can be traced, I convinced both my mother and father to do it too so we can see more clear information.