Greg+Richardson


 * Wikipost # 1: Genetics **
 * January 11, 2012 **
 * Biology 122, Period 2 **
 * Greg Richardson **

They just don’t make it like they used to.......
 * __My Daily Joke:__**



**__“__****__ Scientists Discover New Technique To Prevent Certain Inherited Diseases” __**

** An in vitro fertilization, at the cellular level. **  Hey, does anyone remember Mitochondria? Those little bean shaped things we colored green on cell diagrams back in grade 9? Funny, we were always told that they make energy for the cell. As it turns out though, they do much more than that. As we discussed earlier this year, not all a cell’s DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell. A portion of it is located in the mitochondria which in humans, comes from the mother (as she contributes the egg during conception). However, like nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA is still subject to the same mutations and errors which may cause one of several genetic disorders. However, recently scientists working for New York’s Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory have found a way to prevent these disorders from being passed down to offspring.



** An image of a single mitochondrion, with a cross section showing its mitochondrial DNA (Sorry for the creator’s signature on the cell, but it was perfect otherwise). **  The scientists started by lowering the temperature of two eggs, one form the mother and another from a donor. The nucleus of the donor egg was removed and then replaced with the extracted nucleus of the mother. The freezing actually increases the odds of the eggs surviving. Once they had successfully performed the procedure, the scientists extracted stem cells from the eggs and allowed them to grow and specialize for a full year. The results were nothing short of astonishing. Healthy heart and neuron cells were produced, all free from the genetic defects of the parent’s mitochondrial DNA.

** An average mitochondrion, in action. **  The end result would theoretically be children genetically similar to the parents, yet with genetic disease free mitochondrial DNA. This process is actually a similar idea to how Dolly (the cloned sheep) was produced, however the results are more promising because both eggs would be of similar genetic age.

** A general diagram of a cell, notice the mitochondrion located in the top left corner. **  As a society, we now have a method to lower the number of people affection by genetic disorders caused my mutations in mitochondrial DNA, which affect about 1 in 10, 000 people today. However, many of the researchers still believe we have a long ways to go. Not only do they believe that clinical trials will be an issue, but also the opinions of people as well as current ethics. One thing is for sure, we have a long ways to go before we can see a decline in the transmission of genetic disorders.

__**A Biologist's Mother's Day Song (As seen in class)**__ A song explaining how our mother's have given us "slightly more than half" of our genetic identity, through the use of mitochondrial DNA.

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A brief documentary, explaining how genetic disorders come about as a result of mutations in our DNA. As well as some of the possible methods of treating and curing them.
 * __ Genetic Disorders And Diseases __**

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 * __References:__ **


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__** Further Reading: **__
 * [] (If you want to know anything about genetic disorders, which chromosomes the mutations are found on and the specific base pair combinations that cause them, this is the place to look.)
 * [] (An examination of how Whole-Genome Sequencing in children could soon become reality. How we could tell their genetic predispositions to certain disorders. The concept sounds eerily similar to Gattica.)
 * [] (A quick examination of stem cell research and how it is related to genetics.)
 * [] (A biologist’s plans to sell genetic testing to everyone, cutting out the need for doctors.)


 * Wikipost # 2: Evolution **
 * January 18, 2012 **
 * Biology 122, Period 2 **
 * Greg Richardson **
 * __ Daily Jokes: __**

This guy.......

**__“Scientists breed big-brained guppies to demonstrate evolution's trade-offs”__** ** The experimental guppies. **

A Swedish team of researchers has recently done a study in an attempt to better understand evolutionary tradeoffs. Specifically, how do guppies which have been bred to have a larger brain compare to their counterparts with bigger guts? And how could this provide an advantage or disadvantage to their lives?

This idea has been seen before, and is known by scientists as “the expensive-tissue hypothesis”. The concept is this; all animals have certain energy outputs for their bodies. Larger tissues will take up more energy than smaller tissues. What does this mean? Well areas that are larger (requiring more power) will perform their function better, essentially leading to different biological skills.

** Scientists believe there is correlations between the mass of each of our body sections ** It might all sound a little confusing, but let me give an example. When looking at human evolution, scientists have often wondered, how did our brains become larger? Many believe that when we switched from a difficult to digest diet (freeing up energy) that paved the way for the development of larger brains, which required that extra energy to run. As we used our brains, they got larger and our digestive tissues got smaller (use and disuse). Essentially though, scientists look for a correlation between one tissue decreasing, while another increases.

Anyways, back to the guppies. The scientists were looking for evidence of the “expensive-tissue hypothesis” between brain tissue and gut tissue. They started first by using artificial selection to breed guppies with larger brains, and then a different set with larger guts. Then, they went about testing their abilities, to see where each type excelled. A basic arithmetic test showed that the larger brained guppies were smarter than the smaller brained guppies, but the researchers noticed something else as well. The large brained fish also had 20% fever offspring than their big gut counterparts.
 * More guppies, on their way to their cognitive abilities exam.**

**A researcher, measuring organ masses in mammals.** So far, the data seems to support the idea of the “expensive-tissue hypothesis” which could help confirm our idea of how humans gained larger brains during evolution. However, all the researchers agree, that this concept if far from conclusive and more scientific exploration is needed. Sadly, the researchers do not know for certain which genetic mechanism acted first, the increased brain size of the decreased gut size.

**A chart, showing the scores of the different "breeds" of guppies in the cognitive tests (I believe the roughly equal score for the males is merely a statistical anomaly).** The researchers say they intend to do further testing on similar guppies, to see how they perform in their environment.

__**Further Reading:**__ [] (A summary of the expensive tissue hypothesis and how it humans have achieved the energy needed to run our large brains.) [] (An article which opposes the expensive tissue hypothesis, backed up with research. A different perspective from the first article.) [] (A perspective on the energy consumption of the human brain.) [] (Another examination of how our brains became enlarged.)

__**References:**__ []

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 * Wikipost # 3: Body Systems **
 * January 20, 2012 **
 * Biology 122, Period 2 **
 * Greg Richardson **
 * __My Daily Joke:__**

__“__**__Study: Leprosy Bacteria Turn Nerve System Cells into Stem Cells ” __**

**A diagram showing how the bacteria implants itself into the body's Schwann cells and proceeds from there.** Scientists have known that the bacteria //M. leprae// can cause the condition known as leprosy in humans, but not until recently did they figure out how it managed to spread through the body so quickly. As it turns out, the bacteria were able to do this by hiding in the Schwann cells of the nerves. The bacteria then proceeds to turn the Schwann cells into something similar to stem cells. They even show the same pluripotence as stem cells.

**The perpetrator in question,** **//M. leprae.//**

Once inside the Schwann cells, the new stem cells begin to release a new proteins called chemokines, causing cells from the immune system to gather around the "transformed" Schwann cells. The bacteria can then attach to the cells and spread themselves out throughout the body using its own defenders!

**The "old way" of thinking about leprosy, where is only damaged the Schwann cells.**

Scientists believe that this new discovery could lead to earlier diagnosis of bacterial infections (especially leprosy in this case). According to the researchers, this is the first time a normal bacteria has been able to turn regular, adult cells into stem cells. This could also have a applications in regenerative medicine, where (once the bacteria was killed off) they could be transplanted into healthy patients in order to grow lost tissue. Currently, many of these degenerative diseases are not possible to treat, but these new cells could hold the key.

**A diagram of a typical neuron, showing the locations of all its parts, including the Schwann cells on the axon.** The scientists also believe, that there maybe more bacteria out there in the natural world that exhibit this characteristic.

** __Video: An Animation of Stem Cells in the Body__ ** media type="youtube" key="rXVdSajL08E" height="315" width="560" align="center"

[] (An explanation of what leprosy is, who it often affects and a bit about its cure.) [] (Where are leprosy epidemics and hot zones today?) [] (The Leprosy Mission of Canada, some interesting reading on the topic, as well as ways which you can help victims of leprosy today). [] (A bit about the bacteria which causes leprosy.)
 * __Further Reading:__**

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 * __Sources:__**