By Mariam Malik ‘22 It is not uncommon to hear to blame a moment of overreaction on being hungry. However, the connection between the two has not been greatly explored until recently. At the University of Guelph in Canada, PhD student Thomas Homran led an experiment on mice to see what it is that makes us “hangry”. In one small room, a group of rats … Continue reading The affect of hunger on brain health
By Mariam Malik ‘22 Out of the individuals you know, it is often difficult to determine whether or not they wear contact lenses. Due to their efficiency, contacts have become a phenomenon in eye care and vision. A new study from the University College of London has resulted in the awareness of Acanthamoeba keratitis infections, a disease that affects the cornea and causes it to … Continue reading Findings of Disease for Contact-Lens Users
By Kavindra Sahabir ‘21 The labels on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are what most use to understand their contents and effects. However, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), finding a disparity in the different kinds of prescription drug labels, has proposed a standardized label to be used for OTC drugs in Australia. Vivian Tong and her research team aimed to test different drug label formats and … Continue reading The Efficiency and Effectiveness of Different Drug Labels
By Kavindra Sahabir ‘21 Climate change, in addition to contributing to rising temperatures around the globe, may also be affecting the availability of water and production of food. Soil macropores are, at their most basic level, holes in soil that act as natural drains of water due to gravity. They affect factors such as nutrient transport for plants and water runoff in fields, which in … Continue reading The Effects Of Climate Change On The Macroporosity Of Soil
By Kavindra Sahabir ‘21 One commonality between the average gym goer and competitive bodybuilders is the goal of stimulating muscle growth. Researchers led by Sarah J. Lessard from the Joslin Diabetes Center have aimed to understand how to stimulate muscle growth by investigating the effects of resistance training, or training using weights, and endurance training, or running and other aerobic exercises, on JNK. JNK, or … Continue reading The Effects of Resistance Training vs Endurance Training on Muscle Growth
By Riya Gandhi ‘22 Researchers in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California have made a progressive discovery regarding tumor cell immortality, especially in brain-related cancers such as glioblastoma, which recently claimed the life of Senator John McCain. Their work involved TERT promoter mutations, which are responsible for activating telomerase and thereby enabling cell immortality. Approximately 90 percent of human tumors reactivate … Continue reading Disruption of GABPβ1L Reverses Immortality of Glioblastoma Cells
By Riya Gandhi ‘22 Despite the importance of hematopoiesis — a process that balances production and destruction of specialized blood cells — in the human body, scientists were unable to quantify the population size and lifetime dynamics that govern the process until now. Researchers from the Wellcome-Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and the University of Cambridge conducted a recent study under principle … Continue reading Somatic Mutations as Markers for Size and Lifetimes of Blood Stem Cells
By Riya Gandhi ‘22 Relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) — or any type of cancer, for that matter — has always posed an enormous challenge to patients and physicians alike. However, a recent study conducted by researchers at McMaster University has found that it is not predominantly leukemic stem cells that induce such recurrence but rather leukemic-regenerating cells that arise post-chemotherapy. In this study, … Continue reading Malignant Regenerative Cells Induced by Chemotherapy: A Possible Cause of AML Relapse
By Allan Mai ‘20 Much medical research is dedicated to the challenge of preventing the buildup of the proteins that cause diseases or accelerate their progression. Many researchers have devoted their careers to finding ways to prevent these diseases at the molecular level. One researcher and his colleagues are currently looking into senescent cells in hopes of finding answers on neurodegeneration which is the loss … Continue reading Elimination of Senescent-Expressing Genes Prevents Neurodegeneration
By Allan Mai ‘20 It’s no secret that eating vegetables improves your health in more ways than one. A recent study is adding to the repertoire of already known health benefits; benzyl isothiocynate (BITC), a compound found in cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, is showing indications of a role in decreasing hepatic precancerous lesions in mice. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most … Continue reading The Role of Vegetables in Cancer Therapy
By Allan Mai ‘20 The blood-brain barrier (BBB) protects the brain from infections that enter through the bloodstream. However, this barrier also poses an enormous challenge for researchers developing drugs to specifically target the brain via the blood vessels. For brain tumors specifically, a current method for chemotherapy delivery are Gliadel Wafers: surgeons resect the tumor from the brain and fill the crater left behind … Continue reading Focused Ultrasounds Increase Chemotherapy Drug Uptake
By Ellie Teng ‘21 Advances in skin treatments have expanded to laser therapy, micro needling, and platelet rich plasma to restore and reverse the effects of aging and scarring or pigmentation. Restoring tone and reversing the effects of environmental and genetic aging through non surgical modalities have attracted a great deal of attention for their reduced downtime, risk of complication, and sufficient treatment outcomes. The … Continue reading Lasers, micro-needling, and platelet-rich plasma
Young Investigators Review 