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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Lab grown red blood cells from stem cells!This is big news from a big name in tissue engineering. Robert Lanza
might be considered one of the founders of tissue engineering. His company, Advanced Cell Technology in Massachussetts
and colaborators from the Mayo Clinic, have successfully produced red blood cells (erythrocytes) in culture from human embryonic
stem cells (hESCs). To do this, the researchers had to first transform the embryonic stem cells (from each of the different
blood types-all except type O negative, which is one line of ESCs not available to researchers) to a hematopoietic stem cell
which can be found in the bone marrow. Then, using various reagents and cellular cues, directed the cells to follow
completely the entire process of erythropoiesis. Not as easy as it sounds, unfortunately. The final sticking point
was to cause the red blood cell to lose its nucleus. (As a side note, without a nucleus, the red blood cell cannot divide
and thus the organism relies upon a reserve of stem cells in the bone marrow to continually create new blood cells--a red
blood cell usually only survives about 120 days before being destroyed in the spleen or liver). Without the nucleus,
the cells are able to properly transport oxygen and cannot divide, meaning they cannot become cancerous, which is one concern
of using any type of stem cell in therapy. Large numbers can be created by this method, and the need for blood donors
and the associated risks such as disease and disintegration of the blood products over time can be minimized.
 image from oncoprof.net showing the stages of erythropoiesis as wll as important growth factors that I won't describe
here for now. However, you may look at the original article's abstract from the journal Blood here
Tue, August 26, 2008 | link
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tissue engineering our foodDuring the camp, I passed out an article from US News and World Report
about lab-grown meat. We happened to look at forming in vitro (on a petri dish) muscle during the camp,
but that barely begins the process of making something we recognize as meat. Check out the link here.
Mon, August 11, 2008 | link
A few post-GAMES thoughtsIt is extremely quiet here in my hallway. It is always an adjustment
to come down from the excitement of the GAMES camp, but I also like that I learn something new about myself and others in
the midst of it all. I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you amazing girls: participants, counselors and especially
to my lab assistants Jess, Jenna, Kate, Katie, Kristen and to the camp coordinator, Sarah. Your enthusiasm for science
and interest in making the experience a great one for the girls resonates with me on so many levels.
On Sunday,
I spoke randomly with several people at a coffee shop, and each one had something to do with science! It was marvelous.
I specifically think of the mother who was so proud of her daughter who had just been hired as an aerospace engineer.
I thought of how I might have liked to be an aerospace engineer or a nuclear engineer. I was very excited for this
mother and her daughter and thought then about how, other than my strong interest in biology, that it was my deficiency in
math that kept me from originally pursuing engineering (and 20 + years ago how it was less acceptable for a female to do this).
In high school (an all girls school), for some reason, me and my Algebra teacher did not click. Before this
meeting, I never gave thought as to whether I liked or didn't like math (I LOVED science, obviously), but not feeling
comfortable to ask for help help when things became frustrating truly colored the science path I was to go on.
My parents were unable to help me along in this area, so I was left abandoned when it came to math. To top it off, I
wasn't even aware that math was so much needed in engineering, so I didn't think that I should seek help. Of
course, I ultimately fulfilled all the mathematical requirements for the field I am in, yet have never really flowed
with math.
It is wonderful that there are so many options for young people today. You have the opportunity
to learn about anything you want, you can easily find resources that will help you decide what to pursue and what is needed
to help you do whatever you want. No question is too small and it should be easy enough to find someone who can give
you the answers you need. Good luck to ALL of you on your future science paths.
Mon, August 11, 2008 | link
Friday, August 8, 2008
The best picture of the entire camp!!I assure you that your daughters were all quite safe! And remember, Jenna,
us Libras disarm our enemies (the few we have) with much more subtlety, grace and charm than this. I love this picture, Katie
and Jenna are great actresses! Thanks, Jess, for taking this picture.
Hope you all caught the red food coloring here. Katie is not really bleeding, obviously. Jenna and
I talked about astrological signs for half a lunch, ultimately deciding that while astrology was a curiosity, it was still
unscientific. But....if you have to be an astrological sign, we're pretty sure that Libra is probably a good one to be!
Regardless, variety is the spice of life, so I guess the others are worth having around.
Fri, August 8, 2008 | link
GAMES post #5Last day of the camp (closing ceremonies tomorrow--I get to meet parents & say goodbye), although we still have plenty left
to do including finishing the final project, cleaning the lab, burning cds with lectures and pics of the girls' cells, returning equipment and
visiting the evening festivities where the girls display some of their talents! I think maybe I could read a medical
dictionary with proper pronounciation if I desired to display a random talent. Flute and cello playing are long
demised, and I was never really great at either....so........
More
Fri, August 8, 2008 | link
Thursday, August 7, 2008
GAMES post #4Chicken day! I am always surprised at how well the majority of girls take
to the activity where we manipulate and dissect chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks together) to understand the biomechanics
of leg movement. Personally, I love the dissection part! Yep, me and Jenna, two dissection fiends. I always have
to stop myself from doing the dissection myself.
More....
Thu, August 7, 2008 | link
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Games post #3My assistants Sarah, Jess, Jenna, Kate, Katie and Kristen, all worked
extra hard for the girls today. And, we have a very promising engineer amongst our young ladies.... More
Wed, August 6, 2008 | link
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Games post-Day 2
Tue, August 5, 2008 | link
Monday, August 4, 2008
GAMES post #1Hi all,
Thought it might be a good idea to quickly post something
each day of the GAMES camp (Girls' Adventures in Math and Engineering Sciences) so participants, parents and other followers
of science could take a peek at this week. I will direct you to the GAMES page for each post.
Monday, August 4--fun day despite back pain.
Mon, August 4, 2008 | link
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Asbestos to the left, creepy stuff to the right..... ....and THAT room had the radiation."
oh.
Tell me that BEFORE I open the door next time. I
am not interested in being "hot" like Marie Curie undoubtedly was.
Jenna, a former student from my courses
and helper for her second year with the GAMES camp, and I had to go find the storage room holding supplies for the camp.
After a few weeks of chasing down the key and coordinating schedules, we finally went to lunch together and ventured to the
basement of the Materials Science Engineering Building in search of these boxes. A young man was in the elevator with
us, probably wondering what two pretty gals were doing going to this pit of a basement. As we exited, he gave
the directions listed in the title, either being witty or chivalrous, I'm not sure.
We didn't know where
this room was so we went on an adventure. Attractive women plus a creepy, dirty, dark and dank basement (no spiders
or rodents....that I could see...too bad, actually). Somehow it had all the ingredients of a horror movie. But, Jenna
and I, being of the curious science persuasion, explored every corner looking for the room, with me trying the key
in every door possible. We came back to where we started and looked over to a very open door into a room with boxes.
Lo and behold, there they were! I put the key in the open door, just to be certain. Yep. What can I say?
It was the only lit, well kept place in that basement and we ignored it for 20 minutes.
I think I don't
really have a point to this note except to point out that my job is quite varied! For instance, I'm trying
to reconstruct a skeleton. While you might think it is the ultimate tissue engineering project (ascorbic acid and beta
glycerol phosphate, anyone?), it's not. It is actually made out of card stock. Med school anatomy pays off?
I cut, folded and glued for more hours than I can guess and made a very nice full size articulated skeleton, which has fallen
in disrepair in the nine years that have lapsed since then. It needs to be re-articulated. Check it out...my deadline
is by August 3, the start of GAMES. Maybe the girls can be photographed with it....we'll give it some top model's
name, I can even let it wear my fake ponytail; if I decide not to wear it, that is.

Thu, July 17, 2008 | link
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Death of Michael DeBakey and tissue engineering of blood vesselsI finished Stiff last night at Aroma Café, trying
not to disturb other patrons with my giggling, and most certainly trying not to snort iced tea out of my nose. Her sense
of humor just floors me! I can be one of those obnoxious people who barges in and reads aloud the parts of books that
are hilarious to me, so it was best that I stayed away from people I know otherwise I would've probably wore them out.
I thought briefly about vlogging myself reading her stuff, but that probably requires special permission and seems incredibly
self centered...but then again, some of you may never pick up her books, so I might be doing you a favor. Send me a
note an let me know if you'd be interested in seeing me read her stuff! Pioneering heart surgeon Michael DeBakey from Houston passed away yesterday (at age 99!).
He performed the first coronary bypass surgery and some of the first heart transplants. It is pretty easy to segue into tissue
engineering at this point as there is strong interest in creating the vessels for bypass surgery so we don't need to use
the saphenous vein from the thigh (which lasts only about 10-12 years--requiring more surgery eventually), and interest in
artificial hearts is of importance as donors are in lower supply than those requiring them. If you catch this post before I finish about the blood vessels, check back later...I'm going to help a friend
film something for a potential job.....
Sun, July 13, 2008 | link
Sun, July 13, 2008 | link
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Scientifically literate Americans and my new favorite authorYes! I won't do all the talking on this one as I found
this on another blog (Gene Expression via Science blogs--and check out Razib's breakdown of this in another post), but I can tell you I am super thrilled to find this information, even if it is probably incomplete or inaccurate, as many
of these studies relying on "quizzing" people might be (and some of the questions leave something to be desired,
as well). The data is from 2003 and compares only the US and the EU. Basically, adults in the US are only superceded by the Swedes in scientific literacy!
Oh joy!!! I hope this means that means the educational system works well, or that science TV and the media's dissemination
of information has been effective. I will have to check out the actual paper to see if there are any conclusions along
those lines.
If you can define what
a stem cell is, tell someone that it is "false" that an ordinary tomato has no genes and genetically modified ones
do, and a few other things, you might be considered scientifically literate! As I live in a university town, I find that most
people here are scientifically literate, and if they aren't, they will readily admit their shortcomings or their general
lack of enthusiasm for the subject, which I admire. A little humility goes a long way with me.
Speaking of science outreach, I am FINALLY reading the first book by Mary
Roach, called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. The first one I read (her third book) was Bonk:
The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, which I
just enjoyed with every cell in my body. Her humor is so awesome "Again with the pyrex tubes."---read the
book to find out what this means! WAIT! First, a disclaimer! This book is not for everyone.
You know who you are, and if you don't know, I will tell you: if you are a middle schooler or maybe even a high schooler
with a parent who would not approve, or your religious affiliation will not approve--DON"T READ IT or I will personally
come snatch that book right out of your hands and give you a disapproving look and ground you from emailing or texting anyone
for at least a week! Mary Roach is now officially on my list of people I most want to invite to dinner. I'll add her to Reza Aslan (author of No god but God-a great book describing Islam--while I'm not a Muslim, I like how he expressed himself)
and Brian Greene (author of The Elegant Universe--about string theory) and Alan Alda. They don't have to come all at once as I'm not necessarily the "hostess with the mostess", but I'd
certainly try and definitely hope wonderful conversation would be the centerpoint of the evening. I've been reading Stiff during incubation times of some experiments
and microscope training I've been doing (sometimes sitting on the mysterious disappearing Beckman Institute couches and
sometimes lying on the benches and walls on the engineering quad--yes, that long person stretched out looking like me is really
me!). I found, strangely, that I can read about decomposition and other gruesome things even while eating. I suppose
if it was a "scratch and sniff" book, I probably would not be nearly so stoic about the whole thing! The full
body dissection course I took in grad school with the medical students helped me come to terms with death and dead bodies,
at least on one level. I have no macabre fascination or anything like that....I just stepped a little closer to accepting
this as a fact of life, and Mary Roach found a way to make the whole thing respectfully entertaining. If you have the
stomach for this or the curiosity, I highly recommend it! I think all you pre-meds will especially appreciate it.
Next post later this weekend will
be about the death of heart surgery pioneer DeBakey and tissue engineering of artificial blood vessels.
Until next post, Kindly, Joanne
Sat, July 12, 2008 | link
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Can we reprogram cells with DNA so they can make a pair of electric blue pants?Gosh, so long since I posted. This would be because I've been
working like crazy helping out Dr. B and Dr. I with their projects (more excitement...I get a small little part as a co-investigator
on a NIH grant--a first for me...moving up in the science world I guess). Most of it involves background research reading
papers, papers and more papers, and actually finding just the magic key words that will get me the info I am looking for.
By the time I put this mental energy for numerous hours in a day, the last thing I want to do is use words. I could've
used an assistant. And my sis and her kids came in town,
as did my friend from New York, so no escaping talking, either.....so writing has been sacrificed....which is slowing down
the sample I would like to write of a layman's book about Tissue Engineering based on a beautiful technical book by some
leaders in the field called Translational Approaches in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. The authors are 100% behind me but now I need to find a publisher. I envision a book like Stem Cell Now. I imagine there would be a market among science hobbyists, students needing to write science papers or just curious
members of the public wondering where the field stands. Wouldn't you like to know of alternatives to xenograph (from animal)
or allograph (from other humans) tranplantations? Want a better ACL repair strategy all you weekend warriors and football
players? What are the pros and cons of all of this? Where do stem cells fit in? The great thing about the appearance
of Translational Approaches is that the background research is done and I just need to 'translate' it and find
some info on creating artificial blood vessels because that seems to have been overlooked. Back to my papers and DNA: As I was reading all of these papers, trying to find how we can influence epithelial
cells to become cancerous through epigenetic changes from chemicals secreted by the supporting stromal cells and then test
to know they ARE indeed cancerous, I kept running across papers I thought would be useful until I realized the researcher
had added a plasmid to the cells to make them do what they want! I was looking for epigenetic changes that could be
consistently relied on and instead had to read about transfections and plasmids instead. I know full well that manipulating
the DNA to create a model in which to work is valid, but it was not helping me, and had me thinking long and hard about purity
in biology. Where is the point where we have manipulated an organism so it is no longer a valid model, where the results
we get can no longer possibly represent any in vivo condition? And then I think of the breakthrough released
in February where the researchers created a "stem cell" from a skin cell by inserting four genes, causing the cell
to revert to a pluripotent state, saving many embryos from destruction..... BUT...... two of the genes turn these cells cancerous!
A small snag to say the least....but at least we've shown it can be done. Read about it at Science Daily. Something to think about.
My student evals came back for the semester. Positive overall and I thank you guys for that. I read some of
the comments aloud to the professor whose home I am staying at while the mold saga continues and he thought some of the comments
were inappropriate, but I though they were sweet and harmless because they were in addition to the
more constructive comments I always hope are there. Maybe I will scan in some of the comments and make a powerpoint
to post just so people can see what really goes on in the minds of students. Here's one: "Never repeated an outfit! My favorite involved the electric blue pants--way cool!"
Yeah, I like the electric blue pants, too! Until next
post, Kindly, Joanne
Sun, June 29, 2008 | link
Friday, June 13, 2008
What kind of science TV viewer are you?I found an interesting article a couple of weeks ago called "Science
on TV: forms and reception of science programmes on French television" by Suzanne de Cheveigné and Eliséo
Véron in the journal Public Understanding of Science (vol 5 (1996) pp.231-253). Science programs, of course,
are BIG here in the US and in the UK and less so in France (they hardly have any TV channels to watch--even fewer in 1996!)
Regardless, these researchers were able to conduct interviews and categorize reactions that the general public had to watching
science programs.
Overall, the reactions depended upon two factors: 1) "the legitimacy accorded
to television as a source of knowledge; 2) the type of memories left by their school experience"
From
these two, they were able to schematically plot four main readings:
click here to continue reading
Fri, June 13, 2008 | link
Monday, June 2, 2008
I don't know why this fascinates me....I guess I must be a scientific genealogist at heart. I was trying
to look up some info about fibronectin and it's interaction with the basement membrane, hoping to find some on the site
of Alan F Horwitz, former head of the Cell and Structural Development Department here at the U of I and big name in integrin
research (now at U of VA) and I ran across this. Scientific six degrees of separation, I guess. Scientific Ancestry |
| G.F. Rouelle | 1703-1773 |
| A.L. Lavoisier | 1743-1794 |
| A.F. DeFoureroy | 1755-1809 |
| J. Vanquelin | 1763-1829 | | F. Stromeyer
| 1776-1835 | | R. Bunsen | 1811-1899 | | A.W. Hofmann | 1812-1892 |
| J. Tiemann | 1848-1899 |
| H.I. Schlesinger | 1882-1960 | | H.C.
Brown | 1912-2004 | | N. Davidson |
1916-2002 | | H.M. McConnell | 1927- |
| A.F. Horwitz | |
Mon, June 2, 2008 | link
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Human stem cell line made with sickle cell anemia mutation (and the case of the Ramen-eating dog)I'm trying to keep up with posting....but along with my lab work and
trying to figure out the big engineering project for the GAMES camp among other things, I actually have a sort of secret project
I am working on. I will let you all know what it is in a few days once it is done. Wish me luck! Science Daily just posted the story of a research team from Johns Hopkins, in trying to improve upon the newer way to create pluripotent
stem cells using four genes inserted into a somatic cell to revert them to a ES-like state, found a quicker way by adding
T antigen (a protein) from the SV-40 virus and then they subsequently introduced the mutation to make a cell line behave just
like sickle cell anemia. Stem cells are often touted for their future medical potential, but it is important to remember that having cells
that can express specific diseases in the laboratory will help further our understanding of what is happening during particular
diseases without relying solely upon transgenic animals as models (transgenic animals have mutations made at an early embryonic
stage so the entire animal expresses the disease) or without having to continually obtain samples from human patients.
And, for now, it is important to remember that these cells have been reverted to a so-called embryonic state by inserting
cancer genes. It is as of yet unclear the long term implications of using such cells for therapy purposes, but it does
circumvent the ethical issues surrounding the use of ES cells. OK, OK, I didn't want to post non-science stuff, but this is actually irresistible! I discovered the other
day that my dog ATE AN ENTIRE CASE OF RAMEN NOODLES! (not just for poor science graduate students anymore!). I think
she got tired of eating around the packaging, too, so ate some of that as well--along with the silver foil flavor packets.
Sigh. I suspect she is feeling quite dehydrated as her digestive tract was busy reconstituting the noodles. Her poor
kidneys are probably not too happy with her right now. And, I don't even want to imagine what her intestines must be going
through!
Sat, May 31, 2008 | link
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Surgery to repair bone....but not for mom this time!Before I move on to the latest in the "more than I care to
count" excursions to surgical waiting rooms, let me thank all of you who have sent me such nice notes about my website.
Thanks so much for taking the time to peruse what I have assembled in such a brief time. I will truly fall over if any of
you make good on your promises (threats?) to make joannelovesscience.com your home page!!! One student jokingly asked if I would be blogging about "the guy who cut me
off in traffic" type of issues and my answer was "Only if it had a science topic I could relate to it!"
Rest assured, you will only listen to my personal stuff as long as it has a cell biology or bioengineering story. There seems
to be no shortage of medical dramas surrounding me. I
think my mom enjoys collecting surgical scars. If anyone has heard me over the course of a few months, you surely have
heard of anyone of the numerous surgeries she has had. She has almost given up every non-essential organ (still has two kidneys,
though) and is slowly getting many artificial replacement parts. Today, though, I waited while another family member had surgery
for a dancing injury. Condensed version: osteochondral defect of the first metatarsal. In this case, The
cartilage was still intact, but the bone had caved in, creating a crater. The orthopedic surgeon has promised me a video
or a picture--excellent! There were two options for this surgery, depending on what he found when he cut open the toe.
1) if the cartilage was intact, he was going to drill several small holes through the cartilage into the bone in order to
bring blood to the area and accelerate healing or 2) if the cartilage was peeling away, he was going to implant a hydroxyapatite
plug to facilitate the healing. Disappointingly for all of you bioengineers, I'm sad to report that it was NOT option
2, thus the doc's promise to give me a video. On the plus side, besides a successful surgery and good prognosis, I may have a potential collaboration with the
doc about creating implants infused with the patient's own growth factors to stimulate healing. I don't have
details, but I think this would be incredibly interesting. How bone heals and why blood or hydroxyapatite are useful........
Thu, May 22, 2008 | link
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
At the mercy of mast cells! Beaten down by basophils.....impotent against IgE and more! Some of you here will recognize these
proteins and cells as some of those that are key players in the allergic response! I was looking forward to 10 weeks of not living in a bed and breakfast (although
the ladies at the Senator's Inn and Retreat were just amazing) or imposing upon my friends by house sitting for some professors who are in Europe for that time.
I suspected they had mold in their basement when I saw the place but had NO idea the extent to which I would react to it.
The first morning I awoke from sleeping there, I was miserable. I am much more sensitive to mold than I ever thought! I will
continue to collect their mail and water their plants, but I'm back with my friends' place because my own house has
a mold overgrowth and I can't live there, either. Let's take a look at what happens when a certain bioengineering
professor is exposed to mold (or dust, dust mites, cats, dogs and cockroaches)................ Click here to read about cells in an immediate hypersensitivity reaction (aka
allergies)
Wed, May 14, 2008 | link
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Got blood?I have so many stories I could share about blood that I could probably
talk your ear off (or is it blog your eyes out? I don't know). Today my theme is about blood related research--specifically
menstrual blood being a good source of stem cells, transfusions not being as good as you might think and, of course, artificial
blood. And I will tell about the giant football player who would NOT let the phlebotomist draw his blood! If you are feeling generous one day, give blood! As someone who has had a
transfusion, I am always grateful for those people who donate blood.... click here to continue learning about the latest about blood stem cells and artificial blood
Wed, May 7, 2008 | link
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