I wanted to make an Adam and Eve joke, or a bioshock reference, but I am so not witty tonight. Blargrarrgragurgle.
SO. ADAM-12 is a gene which is normally only slightly active in adults. It goes up in people who have cancer and some other problems, or normally when a person is pregnant. Scientists noted that in normal people an inhibitor is present to keep ADAM-12 down (or in parts of the body where less should be present, such as in pregnant women), so they're hypothesizing that with a little more research, an inhibitor or some kind of co-factor that goes along with ADAM-12 could be the answer to controlling the spread of cancer and other problems. It kinda makes sense, they just gotta figure out how it works and what is causing the change. For now we know ADAM-12 plays a role in keeping cells together, so it's a good lead.
Personally I'm not real positive they're looking at a cause so much as just another symptom, but I look forward to hearing what they find out! In the meantime, it just strikes me as "hey we noticed something! *Looks closer* Now what does it mean?" If they can figure it out, though, it'll be another great addition to the ever-gaining-momentum race to cure cancer! :)
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
It can also be...an arthritis cure:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-adam-gene-key-cancer-arthritis.html
Showing posts with label Cell Biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cell Biology. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Let's Try Something New, Shall We?
If you're reading this, you're basically a wonderful person for stickin' with me. My life's been upside down, sideways, and really tangled lately! My goal with this blog was to be a reliably up-to-date news source on all worlds of Science, for all those interested in Science. I don't feel like I meet that goal when I only post every month or two, so I want to try something new out and see if I can make the time for it.
Twitter will go on as usual. My favorite part about this is being able to offer those headlines sooner than other sources, and immediately on the site without having to wait to post a full blog. That part's a success and shall continue. Each week day, however, in the morning, I'll sum up just one very interesting article from the day before. That's a lot easier on me because I sleep in the day when the Science is happening, so I don't get a chance to read and report on all of it until the evening and early morning hours. Wake up to Science. Dig it?
Each Saturday, the hope is to write a longer, normal post wrapping up other big stories from the week. Kinda like how my posts have been up until now - between three and five awesome stories from all different fields and sources. Like I said - headlines will continue as usual on Twitter (right-hand side of the page), so you won't miss a thing during the week!
Let's see if I can pull that off, ya? I'll already be on blogger once a day anyways to update the Pet-of-the-Day on my vet techy blog over here. Totally doable. Come on, lady, YOU CAN DO IT.
SO. Today's story!
Tooooxoooplasmoooosiiiisss...
Is one of my favorite diseases. Ebola is my most favorite, but Toxoplasmosis is one of those ones that comes up quite a bit when you work with cats! In any case, researchers studying it have demonstrated that the "centrocone" behaves as a "master organizer" of other "chromosomes," illuminating the "processes" involved in "parasitic" cell "division." "."
Actually this is very cool. All chromosomes remained bound by the spindles even when not actively dividing. This is especially interesting because those cells probably behave differently during different life cycles of Toxoplasma gondii. Not only does this advance our understanding of Toxoplasmosis, which affects millions of people and is frequently symptomless BUT can cause severe birth defects, BUT it also carries over to other organisms like Malaria. Read the full article below!
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
Toxoplasmosis & Chromosomes: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-previously-unknown-role-cell-division.html
Twitter will go on as usual. My favorite part about this is being able to offer those headlines sooner than other sources, and immediately on the site without having to wait to post a full blog. That part's a success and shall continue. Each week day, however, in the morning, I'll sum up just one very interesting article from the day before. That's a lot easier on me because I sleep in the day when the Science is happening, so I don't get a chance to read and report on all of it until the evening and early morning hours. Wake up to Science. Dig it?
Each Saturday, the hope is to write a longer, normal post wrapping up other big stories from the week. Kinda like how my posts have been up until now - between three and five awesome stories from all different fields and sources. Like I said - headlines will continue as usual on Twitter (right-hand side of the page), so you won't miss a thing during the week!
Let's see if I can pull that off, ya? I'll already be on blogger once a day anyways to update the Pet-of-the-Day on my vet techy blog over here. Totally doable. Come on, lady, YOU CAN DO IT.
SO. Today's story!
Tooooxoooplasmoooosiiiisss...
Is one of my favorite diseases. Ebola is my most favorite, but Toxoplasmosis is one of those ones that comes up quite a bit when you work with cats! In any case, researchers studying it have demonstrated that the "centrocone" behaves as a "master organizer" of other "chromosomes," illuminating the "processes" involved in "parasitic" cell "division." "."
Actually this is very cool. All chromosomes remained bound by the spindles even when not actively dividing. This is especially interesting because those cells probably behave differently during different life cycles of Toxoplasma gondii. Not only does this advance our understanding of Toxoplasmosis, which affects millions of people and is frequently symptomless BUT can cause severe birth defects, BUT it also carries over to other organisms like Malaria. Read the full article below!
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
Toxoplasmosis & Chromosomes: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-previously-unknown-role-cell-division.html
Thursday, April 8, 2010
8 April 2010 - Omnomnomium, Things That Don't Suffocate, Volcanoes, Animal-Census, Autism
Hey!
As promised, I've got some pretty interesting news today! :)
First, you've probably already heard about element 117, and its recent, albeit brief, appearance in a Russian cyclotron. Researchers fired calcium ions for 150 days at a target made of berkelium, finally producing SIX atoms of 117. They existed for less than a second before decaying. Now...what to call it? Some amazing suggestions (from #namefornewelement on Twitter) include:
- Yomommium
- Nonsensium
- Omnomnomium
- Newishium
- Holycrapium
- Internetium
- Surprisium
- Pandemonium
- Fatassium
- DeLoreum
- Noobium
- Steve
- Wowthatsheavyum
- MasterChiefium
- Unobtainium
- Oneseventeenium
- Wootonium
- Porkchopsium
That's...amazing. :)
Next, the first multicellular organisms able to survive completely without oxygen have been found in the sediment of the Mediterranean. These three species of Loricifera are smaller than a millimeter and, oddly enough, have no mitochondria. In pretty much every other animal cell, mitochondria are responsible for converting nutrients to energy. These critters, however, use structures called hydrogenosomes to convert their food to energy without ever needing to use oxygen. Since their rather extreme environment resembles ancient Earth before widespread oxygen, it's possible these little guys might be a peek into the past.
Also, the Venus Express orbiter has found new infrared evidence that suggests Venus maaay in fact have active volcanoes. Of course by active, they mean within the past 250,000 years for most of them. Since Venus sports fewer scars by asteroids than expected, it had been theorized before that either a massive volcanic event covered most of the surface at once a long time ago, or ongoing volcanoes have filled in various craters here and there over time. This finding suggests the recent, active volcanoes option, which has interesting implications for the evolution of Earth, which is similar in many ways to Venus.
Back on Earth, a group of ecologists are planning to collect information on 160,000 species of life all over the planet to form a "barometer of life." They selected the species involved in order to best represent all ecosystems, and the plan is to update it every five years with new information from hundreds of cooperating experts and scientists. It's basically a census, but for animals, plants, and other. The project is hoping to provide better and more complete information to aid in gauging the "health" of the planet, determining risks to biodiversity and the environment by companies and human activities, drawing attention to the environment and its inhabitants, and directing spending. The project itself will cost an estimated 60 million USD, and will run an annual cost of around $5 million after that.
Last today, a few articles recently came out detailing advancements in Autism research. For those of you who know me well, you already know how big of a deal Autism spectrum disorders are for me, so this is really exciting! First, a program at Canisius College involving 5 weeks of "summer camp" programs for children affected by high functioning autism, Asperger's, and PDD-NOS paired with parent education has shown marked improvement in the emotional behaviors of participants. Compared with control groups, children in the program showed better social skills, emotional recognition, and conversational skills. The program is working on improving to a level where it can be distributed to communities. Second, it's been shown in separate experiments that oxytocin may be able to improve facial expression and emotion recognition in autistic individuals. The study was done on a small group of ADS-affected adolescents; the experimental group was given an oxytocin nasal spray and the control group a placebo spray. The experimental group showed clear improvement in recognizing emotions and facial expressions, but they say more testing will be needed to back up these results before we can be sure. Lastly, methods have been discovered involving DNA tagging, or methylation, to both diagnose autism disorders via blood tests or other DNA samples (rather than brain testing), and to potentially reverse its effects. There wasn't much to the article, but I really look forward to hearing more! :)
That's it for today, see you this weekend!
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
Element 117
Multicellular Organisms Sans Oxygen
Volcanic Venus
Barometer of Life
Autism
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