Gene Therapy is the attempt to treat a human by using their own cells with altered DNA as opposed to pharmaceutical drugs. The most common form involves using DNA which codes a functional, therapeutic gene to replace a mutated gene. The DNA that encodes a therapeutic protein is packaged inside a vector. A vector is an object which can help to deliver the DNA that has decided to be encoded, into the cell, usually an inactive virus that has been genetically modified to not cause disease but still enter human cells. Some types of virus, such as retroviruses, integrate their genetic material (including the new gene) into a chromosome in the human cell. Other viruses, such as adenoviruses, introduce their DNA into the nucleus of the cell, but the DNA is not integrated into a chromosome. There are two methods of inserting the altered cells into the body, the first is that the adapted vectors can be introduced intravenously or alternatively a tissue sample can be removed from...

Senescence is defined by the online dictionary as "the organic process of growing older and showing the effects of increasing age". Cellular Senescence is the phenomenon where diploid cells simply cease to divide, which is usually after 50 cell cycles or so. Cells can be induced to Senescence by certain toxins, irradiation and oncogenes. In response to the shortened telospheres in a cell, it is programmed to remove itself via cell apoptosis for the good of the organism as a whole. These inactive cells usually adopt a flattened cell morphology and sit dormant, having had other apsects of their phenotype altered too, remaining metabolically active and also becoming more resistant to age related diseases in the process. For example, in a study conducted in 2011, mouse cells were deliberately eradicated and it was shown they were far more resilient to age-associated diseases. The top slide shows mouse embryonic fibroblast cells. The bottom slide shows the same cells after they had...

In 1997 David Julius and his team determined how capsaicin was involved in our registration of "heat" from chillies. Most of our sensory system is based on ion channels opening up suddenly, allowing ions to influx into a cell and generate an electrical signal. Using genetics the exact channel was identified by julius, the TRPV1 channel. More crucially though he illustrated how that same channel also reacts to heat changes, responding to uncomfortably high temperatures like 43 degrees Celcius which would damage the tissues in a human mouth. This helps to explain why chillis feel like they are "burning". In 2002 he also discovered TRMP8, the channel activated by cooler temperatures, 10-30 degrees Celcius. This channel is interestingly triggered by Menthol, helping to explain its "cool" sensation.  Here is where it gets very interesting. Julius and his colleagues then created a strain of genetically engineered mouse with defective copies of the gene that coded for its protein. He...

Depression is a psychiatric disorder in which someone experiences; hopelessness, dejection, poor concentration, lack of energy, inability to sleep, and, sometimes, suicidal tendencies. There are different types of depression; Seasonal affective disorder (usually brought about in winter due to short days); postnatal depression "baby blues"; Bipolar disorder (manic depression) and the list goes on. It is difficult to find information of what chemicals specifically cause depression but it would appear that our emotions affect the chemicals produced in our brain and the chemicals produced in the brain affect our emotions. Imbalances of stress hormones such as Cortisol, Serotonin and Noradrenaline are believed to play an important role. Is it curable? There are antidepressants available which hope to chemically cure the imbalance or hormones which, according to the royal college of physiatrists, are not fully understood how they work. However increased activity in neural transmitters and...

The Blood Brain Barrier is what separates the Brain into its seperate "compartment". The BBB prevents larger substances such as Bacteria from entering the brain whilst allowing smaller essential molecules through like O2, CO2 and Glucose through. This is due to tight junctions between the cells which bind the two cell membrames together and preventing molecules travelling between the cells.This makes infection in the brain far less likely although it makes infection in the brain more serious and difficult to treat. Since Antibodies cannot pass the BBB and only certain anibodies can pass through (only after the brain having swelled slightly, widening the gaps in the BBB). It was discovered after Ehrlin found, whilst dying animals bodies for microbilogical studies, that the brain cells would not be properly dyed when the dye was injected intravenously. He put it down to the fact brain cells did not take up the dye as well as other cells. However it also happened...

A very contorversial topic, probably most famous for its appearance and subsequent demonisation in "one flew over the cuckoos nest", it was long believed to be an effective treatment for physcotic or mental illnesses. The procedure was conceived in 1935 by Antonio Egas Moniz who would later win the nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for his work related to his "leucotomy". This procedure was continued for the next two decades as a mainstream treatment for phsyciatric conditions until its large decline in the mid 1950`s as the introduction of antiphsycotic medications was far more popular. Intial research was done on primates by aggravating them (placing food out of reach and taunting them) and observing their tantrums. "Becky" one of the chimps was then operated on and Moniz remarked her behaviour was as if she had "joined a happiness cult" and became far more Passive. He suggested its use on humans to John Fulton (a Yale Neuroscientist) who was...

Unfortunately we havent yet perfected the art of limb synthesis quite like certain salamanders or even the ability to synthesise entire new organ systems from a single limb as similarily as starfish. Due to certain conditions such as necrotizing fasciitis (giving rise to ganrgene) or severe trauma etc. a limb or part of the body may be unrepairable, similar to "writing off"a car. It often causes much larger issues NOT to remove the necrotizing limb i.e poor circulation affecting the rest of the body via thromboses, not to even mention the psychological trauma of what is effectively now part of a cadaver permanently attatched to the patient. Sadly, many people do not get the option to keep their limb/limbs. Giles Duley will be visiting our school tommorow, a reporter and photographer wroking out in afganhistan he unfortunately stepped on an IED and lost three limbs as a result of the blast. His Surgeon, Shehan Hettiaratchy, tells us in the interview with him (which...

Here are the presentation and notes I produced for my presentation at the Bishop`s Stortford High School Medical Society on the Ebola virus. Enjoy! n.b the second slide illustrates that on the date the presentation was made, it was the 947th anniversary of the battle of Hastings and Winnie the Poohs birthday: Virus presentation.pptx (2530547) Ebola lol.docx (20955)

Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) (also known as "tooth in eye" surgery) is a medical procedure to restore vision in the most severe cases of corneal and ocular surface patients. It includes removal of a tooth from the patient or a donor. After this, a lamina of tissue cut from the tooth is drilled and the hole is fitted with optics. The lamina is grown in the patients' cheek for a period of months and then is implanted upon the eye.   OOKP is a complex two stage operation which was pioneered in Italy in 1963 by Professor Benedetto Strampelli. Stage 1 of the surgery involves 5 separate procedures: The eye is opened up and the entire inner surface of the eyelids, corneal surface and all scar tissue is removed Inner mucosal lining of the cheek is transplanted onto the new surface of the eye A canine or premolar tooth and part of the adjacent bone and ligaments are removed A bolt-shaped structure is fashioned from the tooth-bone complex which is fitted with a plastic...

A blue iris in an eye is due to Tyndall scattering in a turbid layer in the iris. Brown and black irises have the same layer except with more melanin in it. The melanin absorbs light. In the absence of melanin, the layer is translucent (i.e., the light passing through is randomly and diffusely scattered) and a noticeable portion of the light that enters this turbid layer re-emerges via a scattered path. That is, there is backscatter, the redirection of the lightwaves back out to the open air. Scattering takes place to a greater extent at the shorter wavelengths. The longer wavelengths tend to pass straight through the turbid layer with unaltered paths, and then encounter the next layer further back in the iris, which is a light absorber. Thus, the longer wavelengths are not reflected (by scattering) back to the open air as much as the shorter wavelengths are. Since the shorter wavelengths are the blue wavelengths, this gives rise to a blue hue in the light that comes out of the eye....