Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/172353.php
Summary: This article is about premature babies who can't possibly breath. They are put on breathing machines to survive, but later develop chronic lung disease. Dr. Bernard Thébaud at Stollery Children's Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital cares for some of these premature kids. He is studying a healing liquid produced by stem cells that may be able to grow and repair lungs.
Background: Babies who are born extremely premature - before 28 weeks - cannot breathe on their own. In order to help the babies' lungs to develop, neonatal doctors give them oxygen and drugs to help them breathe.
These treatments contribute to a chronic lung disease known as Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). At present there is no treatment to heal the lungs of these premature babies.
50% of babies born before 28 weeks will get chronic lung disease. Case studies have shown that as these babies grow up, they continue to struggle with lung disease, coping with reduced lung function and early aging of their lungs.
Relevance: I think this is important. Children are our next generation and even 5% is a large number of chronic lung disease. This is a serious disease and it happens to so many babies. My brother was a premature baby and he had asthma for most of his life. He had difficulty running and I remember he needed an inhaler. With the discovery of a cure for this disease, I think many kids would be able to be more healthy and compete in sports. Breathing is a huge essential for humans and it ables us to do a ot of things. With lung disease gone, there is such a large amount of things that more people can accomplish physically.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Article #4
The Article: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/102809-germ-cell.cfm
Summary: "National Institutes of Health have discovered how to transform human embryonic stem cells into germ cells, the embryonic cells that ultimately give rise to sperm and eggs. The advance will allow researchers to observe human germ cells—previously inaccessible—in laboratory dishes. Laboratory observation of human germ cells has the potential to yield important clues to the origins of unexplained infertility and to the genesis of many birth defects and chromosomal disorders. Researchers have long sought to understand the process by which cells in the early human embryo mature into germ cells."
The Experiment: "The study was conducted by Kehkooi Kee, Vanessa T. Angeles, Martha Flores, Ha Nam Nguyen and Renee A. Reijo Pera, all of Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers began with human embryonic stem cells, to which they added a gene that makes a protein which flashes green when a gene found only in germ cells is turned on. After the embryonic stem cells grew and changed for two weeks, the researchers isolated the cells that flashed green and then confirmed that the green fluorescing cells behaved like germ cells. Once convinced that their cells were in fact germ cells, the researchers turned on and off several candidate genes to see if those genes played a role in the development of stem cells into immature germ cells."
Relevance: I find this article interesting because human germ cells contribute a lot to medical science as a whole. Like it was quoted from the article, germ cells could explain some things that involve unexplained infertility, birth defects and chromosomal disorders. I personally think this is a good article because usually when people think about germs, they think about something bad. But it's a weird thought when you think about germs causing birth defects and things like that. I didn't know it was germs that caused some of those, I thought it was just something grown the wrong way or some sort of DNA chromosome was sending the wrong message.
Summary: "National Institutes of Health have discovered how to transform human embryonic stem cells into germ cells, the embryonic cells that ultimately give rise to sperm and eggs. The advance will allow researchers to observe human germ cells—previously inaccessible—in laboratory dishes. Laboratory observation of human germ cells has the potential to yield important clues to the origins of unexplained infertility and to the genesis of many birth defects and chromosomal disorders. Researchers have long sought to understand the process by which cells in the early human embryo mature into germ cells."
The Experiment: "The study was conducted by Kehkooi Kee, Vanessa T. Angeles, Martha Flores, Ha Nam Nguyen and Renee A. Reijo Pera, all of Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers began with human embryonic stem cells, to which they added a gene that makes a protein which flashes green when a gene found only in germ cells is turned on. After the embryonic stem cells grew and changed for two weeks, the researchers isolated the cells that flashed green and then confirmed that the green fluorescing cells behaved like germ cells. Once convinced that their cells were in fact germ cells, the researchers turned on and off several candidate genes to see if those genes played a role in the development of stem cells into immature germ cells."
Relevance: I find this article interesting because human germ cells contribute a lot to medical science as a whole. Like it was quoted from the article, germ cells could explain some things that involve unexplained infertility, birth defects and chromosomal disorders. I personally think this is a good article because usually when people think about germs, they think about something bad. But it's a weird thought when you think about germs causing birth defects and things like that. I didn't know it was germs that caused some of those, I thought it was just something grown the wrong way or some sort of DNA chromosome was sending the wrong message.
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