Month: September 2014

Good Speech-ing

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The first thing I have to say about these speeches is wow. It’s amazing how well put-together and professional everyone has been. I’ve never been good at or a fan of public speaking/presentations so I was very impressed (and kind of intimidated) by everyone else’s! For some reason, I have no problem singing in front of hundreds of people, but giving a simple speech for a class of around twenty people freaks me out a little. But, from the lighthearted frivolous topics like yik-yak to heavier more important things like sexual assault, everyone put their best foot forward to present the different calls to civic engagement that surround our daily lives.

You could see the hard work and preparation that had been put into everyone’s speeches. Everyone was very fluid in their delivery and made good eye contact with the class throughout. The use of visual aids, whether it be a powerpoint, pictures, or even a t-shirt, was extremely beneficial to the effectiveness of conveying the civic artifacts.

One thing I did notice was that the points some people made were kind of a stretch. Kairos especially was misunderstood more than the other rhetorical elements. But then again, that’s the beauty of the English language and it’s rhetorical components: they’re open to interpretation (or at least I think they are…but what do I know?).

On a related note, I have not actually given my speech yet and found it extremely beneficial to get to observe my classmates giving theirs while still having time to prepare/tweak my own. I hope that my classmates will find my speech relevant and enlightening (…okay maybe that’s a little much) and that I can at least sound like I know what I’m talking about!

Directing evolution to stop cancer

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Metastasis is the spreading and proliferation of cancer cells throughout the body. These cells then go on to form new tumors, causing greater health problems and higher mortality. This is why it is actually metastasis that is responsible for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. Chemotherapy and radiation attempt to shut down the mechanisms that aid in metastasis, but are not always successful. Because of this, scientists wanted to find a way to biochemically halt the process of metastasis so that once the initial primary tumors have been dealt with, chances of surviving and living a happy healthy life can be much higher.

In recent years, the receptor Axl and protein Gas6 were discovered. These partners in crime are highly responsible for the process of metastasis. When the Gas6 protein binds to the Axl receptor there is a cascade of signals that allow cancer cells to escape from the initial tumor and into the bloodstream where they can spread to other areas of the body. Scientists at Stanford University have been able to manufacture a “decoy” version of Axl that is more than 100 times more effective at bonding with Gas6 than the actual Axl receptor. Because of this, the tumor cells are not able to spread, as has been proven in mice with aggressive breast and ovarian cancers.

This was accomplished through a new process known as directed evolution. Directed evolution is a genetic manipulation process that imitates the century-long process of evolution in a test tube. Through this, scientists are able to engineer proteins with specified properties and functions. As amazing as this sounds, it was a trial and error process where the scientists made over ten million different versions of the Axl protein, each with the slightest of alterations, and had to test them all. After finding which one worked most efficiently, it was re-formatted again and refined to improve its effectiveness and permanence in the bloodstream. The final product was an Axl decoy so strong that its bond to Gas6 is “virtually impossible”.

The results were extremely promising and also showed that the engineered protein had no toxic interactions within the treated mice. Before human trials can start, however, more animal trials (probably in more advanced animals such as primates) are needed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of this revolutionary process. One huge drawback though is that the directed evolution proteins can only be made on a small scale — suitable for mice — which would most likely not be enough to treat a human or even a primate. But this is still a developing area of science, and with the rate at which advances are going now, I’m sure they will find a way to mass-produce proteins like this by the time further trials are approved. The world of cancer research is so incredible and ever-evolving (no pun intended). I’m so excited to continue any kind of research in this field and also to be a part of the largest student-run philanthropy effort in the world, THON, which benefits this kind of work!!

Don’t you want to mean something?

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1. Into

– Who the ARC is and what they do

– Events, volunteer work, etc.

– Blood donation

– statistics on people who need blood

2. Aesthetics of the artifact

– Short, simple, easy to understand

– Thought provoking

– everyone wants to do something that “means something”

– example of kairos?

– Anyone can give, anyone can make a difference

– Red color

– blood

– importance, urgency

– pre-existing association with ARC

3. The rhetoric

– Ethos

– ARC is very well known, for more than just blood drives (lifeguarding, etc.)

– It is a legitimate and globally outreaching organization

– Most people probably know someone who is involved with ARC

– Pathos

– You want to make a difference

– it’s an easy way to save lives (up to two people per donation)

– (Some people may have a negative reaction because of a fear of blood)

– Logos

– The need is constant

– Blood is used and necessary for all kinds of medical situations

– Why not give? (if you are able)

4. Personal  anecdote

– You really do feel like you’re making a difference as you lie on the table, with a needle in your arm and a little tube connects it to a bag hanging off the side of the table. A lot of the people who work at blood donations are a volunteers and they absolutely love what they do and make you feel good about what you’re doing as well

ZZX+

The Biospleen

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http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-develop-blood-cleansing-artificial-spleen

Do you know what your spleen is for? Don’t feel bad if you don’t, turns out Harvard medical students don’t know either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEi_4Cyx4Uw. (FYI What the spleen actually does is filter out old red blood cells and store platelets for clotting and blood coagulation) Anyways, silly videos aside, the Wyss Institute at Harvard has created a spleen-like device that can filter blood for pathogens and toxins.

This is an amazing advance because of conditions such as sepsis. Sepsis is basically what happens when your bloodstream is inundated by an infection and your organ systems start faltering. Multi-system organ failure and death often occur in cases of sepsis. According to the article, more than half of sepsis cases are from an unknown antigen. Because of this, doctors give patients broad-spectrum antibiotics to cover as many bases as possible, but in reality all this does is contribute to antibiotic resistance.

The way the “biospleen” device works is by using magnetic nanobeads covered in mannose-binding lectin (MBL), which is a protein that finds and distinguishes infectious particles. As blood goes through the biospleen device, a magnet attracts the beads that have found anything and the rest of the newly filtered blood flows back into the patient. The article states that the biospleen removes over ninety percent of blood pathogens after five rounds of treatment. In a trial involving rats with E. coli and S. aureus, two bacteria very common in human sepsis cases, the treatment was still very successful and almost all of the rats survived.

Like 3D printing, I think this is another way we are becoming innovative enough to “replace” organs. Obviously a device like this is no substitution for a real spleen, but then again the spleen itself is not a vital organ for survival (unless you have sepsis…).This is a new process, but is very reminiscent of dialysis. However, the mechanism is inherently different because of the differing types of treatments as well as the mechanism involved in the filtering process. The next step for an innovation like this would be biochemically tailoring it to aid with other, harder to treat diseases. HIV and the Ebola virus are cited as examples, but the science is not quite there yet. At this point, trials are moving from rats to larger animals, and will hopefully soon be able to advance to humans. Then after we’ve mastered the biospleen, we can start towards non-invasive, internal organ alternatives. Just imagine where all of this can go.

3D Printing a Brain

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http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/doctors-use-3d-printed-replica-brains-guide-life-changing-pediatric-surgery

Everyone’s heard of the whole right brain/left brain debate, but we all really use both sides of our brains. Now imagine if you couldn’t “choose” to be right or left brained because all you have is one half. This is what would happen in the case of a hemispherectomy.

A hemispherectomy is a radical, last-ditch-attempt surgery that involves removing or disconnecting an entire hemisphere of the brain. Not only is it neurosurgery, but because of its extreme nature, this surgery is extremely risky and can have unforeseeable consequences. And a hemispherectomy is the surgery that doctors needed to perform on 18-month-old Gabriel Mandeville, whose case of epilepsy was so severe that his violent seizures were damaging his brain.

3D printers are being used for a myriad of different things right now with all of the advances in modern technology. So Gabriel’s doctors made an elaborate soft plastic model of his brain and blood vessels. They were then able to use this model to practice on before actually performing the surgery. Needless to say, the hemispherectomy was a success, and Gabriel Mandeville is now seizure free.

This was an incredible feat preformed by the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital. I think that 3D printing has amazing capabilities and this is a huge advancement in modern medicine. Currently, scientists are finding ways to print full organs and vessels. This is a revolutionary way to approach organ shortages and to help people who cannot or are unable to find a match for a donor organ.

This is where the future of medicine is heading, and I really could not be more excited to (hopefully) be a part of it one day! This is why I’m writing my passion blog about medical advances. I’ve always thought I wanted to be a doctor. It’s the only thing that’s ever captivated my interest, but I was always scared of the commitment of going to med school and doing a residency. But after attending a med-school camp at Drexel’s Hahnemman Hospital and working on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I know that this is what I want to do.

The Kairotic Pumpkin

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When someone says winter I immediately think of snow storms, ice, Christmas and hot chocolate. Spring brings thoughts of flowers, rain and sunshine. Summer is full of heat and fun with friends and family. And then there’s fall, which invokes thoughts of colorful leaves, pumpkins, and apple cider. All of these hallmarks of the seasons provide ample material for marketing companies to just go bananas — and that they do. It’s kairos in its simplest form, running like clockwork.

Fall includes Thanksgiving, a holiday which has long been associated with turkey, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and many other rich foods. Because of this holiday, we already associate the month of November with these things, and it has now stretched out to encompass the rest of fall as well.

The advertisements are already here and as we approach the autumn season fall themed goods start popping up everywhere. Last year alone I know I had everything from pumpkin spice to caramel apple swirl toast for breakfast. Starbucks has probably already made millions with flavors like their pumpkin spice latte and salted caramel mocha (and it’s only mid September and technically still summer). Likewise, Dunkin Donuts has pumpkin crème brulee flavored coffee and occasionally churns out some interestingly flavored donuts as well.

(Granted I’ve never actually tried the Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts flavors) Pumpkin flavored foods are completely delicious. I’m one of those people who would eat them year round. However, that’s not how it works. Flavored foods like these sell off of kairotic novelty. This is why the beloved “fall flavors” only sell in the fall (duh). It takes advantage of the season and turns it into something new and special.

So while this may be over commercializing something as natural as the passing of seasons, I think I’m pretty okay with it. A girl’s gotta have her pumpkin pie.

brainstorming

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For my passion blog I’ve considered a list of topics ranging from music to medicine, and social experiments to traveling. Thinking about a blog topic was kind of stressful for me because it’d have to be a topic that’d be substantial enough to write about for a whole semester and also something that wouldn’t make me look stupid… But I think I’ve figured it out.

The current front runner is a travel blog detailing any cool/significant stories from the countries I’ve visited. If you count Puerto Rico I’ve been to a grand total of 10 countries including the USA, Canada, Mexico, France, Portugal, The Netherlands, Israel, India, and I’ve traveled through Spain (more on that later). If I need more to complete the right amount of blogs for the semester I can talk about things like living in Texas, vacationing in Hawaii, and adventuring in Pennsylvania and New York 🙂

Another good option I’ve been thinking about is writing about any new scientific advances, specifically medically related ones. It would be an informative and opinion blog because the posts would have to involve a summary of the news, but it would also include my two-cents on the topic as well.

Both options are looking like they’ll be substantial enough for the semester, now it’s just a matter of picking one and actually writing about it!

Ifemelu’s “Race Blogging”

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Raceteenth or Various Oservations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black  is one of the most obscure blog titles I’ve ever heard. Granted it’s not real, Ifemelu’s online presence is very direct and domineering. While she’s aware that it may make people uncomfortable, she doesn’t hesitate to inform random strangers about it. This blog is her message about the civic in America. The “Badly-Dressed White Middle Manager” she meets on the plane  presents a profound civic view point that offsets all of Ifemelu’s posts: “The only race that matters is the human race” (5). As a self identified race blogger, it’s interesting to think about how Ifemelu would’ve reacted. She calls his statement “defensively bland,” so you know that she doesn’t quite see eye to eye with him on this matter.

As a non-American Black, Ifemelu doesn’t identify with Americans or Black Americans. Her racial identity is central to who she sees herself as an individual, which is why race is so important to her. It allows her to differentiate and isolate herself from the population. I, on the other hand, agree with the badly dressed white dude. Race doesn’t and shouldn’t matter – but the fact of society is that it does. Race is central to personal identity and civic activity. We are all raised to have cultural predispositions, and the degree to which we take them on shapes who we become. I know this makes it sound like I’m agreeing with the fact that race is important, because it is, just not in the way that Ifemelu makes it out to be.

Rhetorical Activities

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The word persuasion has many connotations. It can be a good and mutually beneficial thing, but taken too far and it becomes coercion and people end up doing things they don’t want to do or are uncomfortable with. Persuasion can be defined as the act of “getting somebody to do something” or “convincing somebody of something”. In either case, those are very vague definitions that people enact in a spectrum of methods.

A particularly relevant instance of when I changed my mind goes back to the college application process. I thought wanted to go to a small, diverse, city  school. I fell in love with the likes of Brown and Columbia early on but I knew a little bit about some honors program at Penn State, and applied there too on a whim, because why not? Very gradually I was converted into a Penn Stater through my pre-interview research, accepted student’s day, and NSO, but to be honest I wasn’t fully convinced until SHOtime!

Conversion is an intricate process, and it’s never the same for any two people or any two situations. However, motivation is a key factor in almost all cases. Religious conversion is probably the biggest exception because of its spiritual nature. If someone has grown up or become accustomed to a racist community, it will take radical decisions to change their viewpoints and lifestyles. The same applies to smokers and any other people who live less than desirable  lifestyles. A figurehead such as the president, however has many more methods of persuasion at his/her disposal. Tools such as media, propaganda, and lesser level politicians can aid the president to persuade people to support/boycott a war.

But to really “get someone to do something” or “convince someone of something” there needs to be an equilibrium of incentive between the parties involved and a willingness to accept something new or unfamiliar.