Synthesis

Synthesis essay

           

Through my blog on genomics I have realized that genetics is probably the fastest changing field in science today.  It seems like almost daily something big comes up that totally alters a branch of genetic research. Whether it’s new ways that people can cure or eliminate cancer or trying to bring a mammoth back to life using its genetic material genomics is a very crazy field. 

At the start of this project, I didn’t really know all that much about genetics. This is apparent due to my short blog posts due to not being able to understand different complex wording or fully understand how much an allele or even a gene effects an individual. However, as time progressed I was able to understand more and more until it was almost no problem to read about how different DNA strands could be changed by simply altering a single aspect of a seemingly totally unrelated genetic piece.

Genetics has the potential to save millions of lives. This could be through either altering their body physically of using science to change the molecular chemistry of plants in order to make them produce more food or make them denser in certain vitamins. Its really strange to think that something so small could have so a huge impact on life on earth. Walking into this project, I really had no idea how vast of an impact my field was making on people and the world as a whole.

The most difficult part of doing a project is keeping up. There are so many deadlines that once you start falling behind it is tough to get back on schedule. This is a problem I ran into and am in the midst of correcting in my project. The thing that I believe saved me is the fact that once I finally got to a point where I understood what I was reading, I was able to make posts that were lengthy and covered vast amounts of content. The only aspects that I wish I had been able to include in my blog are the process’s that genes are transferred from one specimen to another. This topic has been really interesting to me but finding an article that accurately describes it has been very difficult.

The knowledge that I’ve learned through this project will help me as long as I stay in the field that I am majoring in. at the moment I am trying to become a doctor but if something catastrophic happens in medical school then this has always been something that has interested me greatly.

Diep, Francie. "Irradiated Seeds Combat World's Most Serious Wheat Disease."Popular Science. N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Sept. 2013

Nosowitz, Dan. "If You Can Smell This, You May Not Have Alzheimer's." Popular Science. N.p., 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Boyle, Rebecca. "Russian and Korean Researchers Will Inject Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Eggs, Resurrecting 10,000-Year-Old Beast." Popular Science. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Deep Freeze

Back in 2009, the American Museum of Natural History decided to try to save genetic samples from thousands of animals currently registered as endangered. They did this by taking blood and tissue samples and freezing them using liquid nitrogen in eight different cryogenic vats. These vats have the potential to store around a million different animals genetic material.

While the purpose of this is to compare these current animals DNA to other species it isn't hard to imagine that if one of these creatures go extinct a revival might be attempted. That process could be similar to when scientists from Russia attempted to use genetic information from an extinct mammoth in order to bring one of these huge creatures back to life. Either way, this would be one of the largest mass DNA storage centers in the world today.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/nyc-museums-deep-freeze-lab-will-store-endangered-critter-dna?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=1&con=nyc-museums-deep-freeze-lab-will-store-endangered-species-dna

October 14th

A 10,000 year old mammoth will soon be brought back to life.

That statement looks a bit like a really bad movie intro but it is actually planned to happen.
Russian and korean scientist have joined together in order to attempt to use genetics to have an Indian elephant give birth to a mammoth clone. Cloning has been around for a while now and always seems to  highly controversial (look up Dolly the sheep), but if this is able to take place it would be truly amazing.

Mammoth remains were discovered in Siberia and scientist had been trying to extract DNA from it. They received a breakthrough when they were successfully able to reproduce mammoth blood protein. I am honestly still in a state of disbelief but I found it on an incredibly trusted source and everything that I've looked for confirmation on has been proven true.

The plan is to attempt this the same way that all the other clones have taken place. In general, this involves implanting the mammoth's DNA into the nuclei of a donor elephant egg. This will effectively create an elephant egg with mammoth DNA that can then be given to a surrogate Indian Elephant. After the 22 month gestation period we may have the first living mammoth since the last ice age. Many discoveries were made just by looking at the blood proteins, who knows what we will learn from a live mammoth.

Boyle, Rebecca. "Russian and Korean Researchers Will Inject Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Eggs, Resurrecting 10,000-Year-Old Beast." Popular Science. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Monday, October 14th

Everybody should go find the nearest jar of peanut butter and take a smell.

I was reading all these fun and interesting science things on the PopScience website when i stumbled upon a very interesting article. Apparently, simply being able to smell peanut butter through your left nostril is a way for you to detect if you are increasingly prone to have Alzheimer's decease.

Sounds crazy right? Well, apparently this is due to the way the nerve endings in your brain work. According to data from the University of Florida "The ability to smell is associated with the first cranial nerve and is often one of the first things to be affected in cognitive decline." Strangely, Alzheimer's patients have their smell affected in many ways. While this isn't something that is normally the first thought when people discuss the disease it can play a major role in detection. Even stranger the left nostril is impaired much more than the right is.

The experiment was done by measuring the distance from the peanut butter the patient could be while still being able to detect the odor. Apparently, in Alzheimer patients the peanut butter had to be 10 centimeters closer to the nose when smelling through the left nostril than through the right.

Normally our sense of smell uses to different sensations when detecting odors. The first (kinda obviously) is smell while the other is a trigeminal sense. The best description of this is that burning or stinging sensation you get when you smell certain scents. Peanut butter is detected purely as a smell through the nose, without any of the other trigeminal sense.

The fact that scientists were able to discover this is purely amazing and the fact that it is such a cheap and a little bit silly sounding at first is just a bonus.

Nosowitz, Dan. "If You Can Smell This, You May Not Have Alzheimer's." Popular Science. N.p., 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Genetic Patents

A major dilemma in the field of Genetics is the ability to patent specific genes. While they were first issues in the 1980s after a court case, it was later decided by the members of the Human Genome Project that all human DNA sequences would be freely open to the public, making them unable to be patented. While this decision took place in 1997 and has nearly held up the duration the debate is often brought up that scientist should be able to benefit from these discoveries.

This year the Supreme Court made it official by declaring unanimously to make it illegal to put a patent on a isolated gene or on a gene sequence. This will help people all over the world because it removes many potential roadblocks that could be encountered when undergoing Gene Therapy.

"Intellectual Property." Intellectual Property. National Human Genome Research Institute, 19 June 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.

Genetically Modified Wheat

I found an article that discusses genetically modified seeds being used in Kenya. These scientifically produced seeds are resistant to the number one threat to wheat around the world. The Kenyan government is giving away six tons of these seeds in an effort to encourage people to start using these and help save the agricultural system for the country. Genetically modified plants are rampant throughout the US with many varieties of corn being changed in order to grow higher and to fight off common diseases in corn plants. Here is the link http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/new-kenyan-wheat-combats-worlds-most-serious-wheat-threat?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=2&con=irradiated-seeds-combat-worlds-most-serious-wheat-disease.

Diep, Francie. "Irradiated Seeds Combat World's Most Serious Wheat Disease."Popular Science. N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Sept. 2013

Interview

I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Sue Stoltzfus who is a professor at Michigan State in the college of natural science. Before the interview, I could never have imagined how likable and down to earth a professor could be. While the majority of my questions focused on the writing that she performs in her job we also talked about other details of her job. Here is a summary of the interview:

Q: Whats your favorite part of your job?

A: Working with the students, everyone here is so unique and finding out about individual students and helping them adjust to life here in college is something I take great pride in.

Q: How much writing do you do in your job?

A: Its in short spurts. There is always email and lots of grading to do. In addition to that I write many letters of recruitment and posting items on D2L.

Q: How do you generally communicate with other people?

A: Normally it is E-Mail, because of the amount of people and their location this is the most efficient way to talk to many people as quickly as possible.

Q: What’s your job like on a day-to-day basis?

A: There is no such thing as an average day, there are always meetings, emails to answer to and  writing i need to catch up on in addition to class.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently I am focusing on data collection on SpartaNature students. The main focus points are on how they are adjusting to life at MSU and also how their GPA is compared to other students.

Q: What challenges are typical with your job?

A: In general it would be technology because of how much I rely on it. If the internet is down or my computer is out of commission it really slows everything down on me.

 There were more questions but I feel they wouldn't be relevant to this blog. Professor Stoltzfus was incredibly helpful and I am very happy that she took time out of her day for this interview.

September 17th Free Post

Recently i was reading this article published by the JAMA ( The Journal of American Medical Association). It discussed the linkage of both ovarian cancer and breast cancer to a single gene. Specifically the BRCA1 Gene. A mutation in this single gene gives carriers an 85% chance of developing breast cancer in their lifetime and an elevated chance of ovarian cancer. Hopefully with genetic counseling it will be possible to save carriers of this gene before cancer can set in. Between 200 and 400 american women are thought to have this mutation at this very moment. If it is discovered before cancer starts growing doctors are able to greatly reduce the risk through gene therapy. I found the article at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=405518

Hall JM, Lee MK, Newman B, et al.  Linkage of early onset breast cancer to chromosome 17q21. 

Genetic diseases are diseases that are passed through DNA. These aren't diseases you can catch but are received through parents. Through gene mapping it is possible to identify these sequences and determine the chances offspring will have the disease. According to this article, this is done through genetic markers that identify the specific sequences that cause the disease. Even this isn't perfect due to recessive alleles and different combinations of genes having different outcomes. Again the field of genetics is constantly being explored and having new break throughs daily. If I find anything else i will post it to this blog. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/235/4796/1616.short

I recently found an article that relates the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation to the genetic makeup of the patient and also the variations in genetics that caused the cancer.

It seems that our genes help to determine the rate of cell adaptation and the heartiness of certain cells. while you would think that having less hearty cells would make radiation more effective due to the fact that cancer cells would be easier to kill, it also increases the amount of collateral damage that nearby cells endure and how quickly they are damaged. This can lead to more cancer that might not even be the same type that was intended to be irradiated. In addition some people produce specific proteins that counter some chemotherapy drugs or cause them to have unintended and detrimental effects. while research in this field is ongoing, it is apparent that a more effective cancer destroying process is necessary. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867402006256

ten questions

Here is my list of ten questions i have about the field of Genetics:

• How does gene mapping work?
• How is it possible for genes to be "patented" 
• How was gene splicing founded?
• Who founded gene splicing?
• How common are GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) in everyday plants?
• Is genetic modification or hormonal boosters more common in athletes today?
• How safe is artificial genetic modification in humans?
• How often does artificial genetic modification happen in humans?
• Why was Mendel so interested in making the perfect pea plant?
• How safe is gene therapy?

I own the book Genetics by Robert J. Brooker. It is set up in the way most textbooks are, allowing easy use of the index or glossary to find the information you are looking for. While this is nice it doesn't go very deep into any topic and seems to lightly skim the surface. I feel that even with using the glossary to help find information, the internet is an easier way to find more detailed information faster. On top of this, the field of genetics is constantly changing so this book from 1999 is very far outdated and many ideas in it are outdated. A strongly sourced webpage or direct contact with a scientist is the best way to get accurate and detailed answers to these questions.