Tagged With "Cell spreading"

2021.8 by Elleen Xue When the crystal ball isn’t so clear . . . . . . one looks to the murkiness in the sphere. Having one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one foot in the western one, in real time, afforded me a unique view of the pandemic. I know, I know, you have read a trillion articles on the pandemic (and here I take the liberty of using hyperbole by exaggerating by orders of magnitude the numbers of cases of the crown prince pestilence) but alas I digress… Just how was it that data...

April 2020 by Elleen Xue As a teenager who has grown up exposed to both Eastern and Western hemispheres, I’m usually caught in betwixt and in between the predominant sentiments expressed therein, and most recently found myself at odds with my family over the issue of the coronavirus. But more than just finding myself at odds with my them, I found myself at odds with China. Paying attention, of course, to the early days of the pandemic, one could not help but notice the extent to which China...

June 2020 By Elleen Xue The terror of this year’s novel coronavirus was something the world has never seen in that the last serious worldwide epidemic, unlike localized ones such as SARs and Ebola, played out on social media and television. This, combined with instantaneous communication and air travel, meant the virus was the first truly global pandemic to play out like a horror show. Most people sat glued to their television sets watching ominous death tolls mount as chyrons blared even...

As confirmed cases of a novel virus surge around the world with worrisome speed, all eyes have so far focused on a seafood market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the outbreak. But a description of the first clinical cases published in The Lancet on Friday challenges that hypothesis. The paper, written by a large group of Chinese researchers from several institutions, offers details about the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019 novel...

None of us were ready for the pandemic; Not the government, not the scientists, not you, and not me. Pandemics, such as the one we are currently living through, could lead to weakened economies, closures of schools and business, travel restrictions, and much more. It is understandable that people may become anxious or panic in situations like this. However, we’re here to help! Here are some things you could do to prepare for the next pandemic! Getting yourself ready 1. Keep calm Pandemics...

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; ecosystem; air quality; animals Introduction Since the Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China in 2020, countries around the world have actively adopted physical isolation to limit the spread of the epidemic after the effectiveness of home isolation has been verified. As of 9 January 2022, Coronavirus infections have been confirmed in over 300 million persons and 5.48 million deaths from Coronavirus, according to WHO. The Coronavirus is highly contagious and can...

Much has been made of the use of “contact tracing” to document and inform people who have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Close contact is defined as a close, physical or proximate and sustained contact with a person for 15 minutes or more. And this definition in itself is problematic because the virus doesn’t always abide by exact distances and wrist watches. But for now those will be the metrics used to attempt to locate, talk with and...

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the Coronavirus transmission rates and symptoms this virus brings. From March 11, 2020, to the current year of February 2022, Covid-19 is still classified as a pandemic. However, one question still remains in the air: When will this pandemic end? First, let us distinguish the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic. According to Oxford Languages, a pandemic is defined as “ (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world”...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global health crisis that has affected millions of people around the world. With the emergence of new variants, it is becoming more important than ever to understand how to recover correctly and quickly from the virus. Recovery from COVID-19 is a multi-faceted process that involves physical, emotional, and mental aspects. In this analysis, we will explore some effective strategies to help individuals recover from COVID-19. The first step in recovering from...

What is cancer? People have always said that microwave cooking will cause cancer. However, that is not necessarily true. Some people only know that cancer is life-threatening while not knowing what cancer is. What is cancer? Cancer is a disease that makes cells divide uncontrollably and spread into other tissues. Cancer is caused by genetic changes, which are changes in the DNA segments. There aren’t strong evidences to support the claim that microwave cooking is cancerous, but,...

AIDS, the last stage of a chronic immune system disease caused by the human immune deficiency virus (HIV), interferes human bodies’ ability to resist infections and disease. Transmission route Common ways of spreading the HIV include sexual transmission, blood transmission, and mother-to-child transmission. Mosquito bites or hugging will not spread HIV. Four Stages of AIDS Stage 1: Acute HIV Infection [lasted for 2-8 weeks] The infectivity of HIV is quite strong during Acute Infection. Some...

Introduction: Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and sometimes, the lungs. Despite significant advancements in medical science and healthcare, influenza remains a major public health concern worldwide due to its ability to rapidly spread and mutate. This research paper delves into the causes, impacts, and potential treatments for influenza, aiming to provide comprehensive insight into this...

The following report analyzes the topic.

Ms. Stacy Pike-Langenfeld, cofounder of the Krabbe disease advocacy KrabbeConnect, gave birth to her daughter Makayla in 2001. Makayla “was perfect until she wasn’t”—Krabbe disease visited her at 3.5 months of age and took her away at the age of 2. “There are no words that capture the vileness of infantile Krabbe disease. Absolutely none,” said Ms. Pike-Langenfeld. 20 years after the tragedy, hope has finally emerged for Ms. Pike-Langenfeld: her home state, Minnesota, has started universal...

The first pillar of cancer treatment can be attributed to surgery. Ancient Greek and Roman physicians recorded surgical procedures for removing tumors. Roman physician Celsus noted, however, “ after excision, even when a scar has formed, nonetheless the disease has returned.” The removal of tumors could not cure cancer due to metastasis–when pieces of cancer tissue enter the bloodstream and spread to the whole body. In the 19th to 20th centuries, the investigation of X-rays brought the...

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported on a boy, Kendric Cromer, 12, who was making the most progress in treating his Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) with gene therapy. The article discusses his 9-month-long journey to curing his SCD. However, I was disappointed the article did not discuss the gene-editing techniques involved in SCD gene therapeutics, or really the biological mechanism behind SCD–both fascinating topics in biology. SCD is caused by a point mutation in the gene that codes...

Although milk and dairy products are common components of the human diet, approximately 65% of the world’s population cannot completely digest them due to lactose intolerance (Malik & Panuganti, 2023). Lactose intolerance is a heritable trait that typically emerges in individuals around weaning. Previously, the enzyme lactase is produced in the infant’s small intestinal lining to digest breast milk. Lactase consists of four identical polypeptide subunits encoded by the LCT gene on...

In my advanced biology class, my teacher annually shows the movie Contagion (2011) . Now that I have seen its IMDb profile, I am surprised its rating is 6.8/10–lower than I thought. It is a movie with many plot lines, all centering around a novel virus that is incredibly pathogenic with an estimated 20% lethality rate. Although I concede this movie is imperfect with certain plot lines that haven’t aged well and inaccurate pacing, Contagion is surprisingly insightful (especially given its...

Foreword: You might not know that, while pursuing biology as my major field of study, I am also a physics enthusiast. Over the past year, I have been exploring cell mechanobiology, the intersection of these two disciplines. I was surprised to find new technologies, new experimental approaches, and new perspectives on biology research taking root in physics principles; furthermore, it moved me that these unconventional practices are showing so much promise to medicine and healthcare. Hence, I...