MODERNM

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GLOBAL DISEASE DISASTER

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Answer To Cancerpg 22

Cloning, A Window To The Futurepg 28

image from nih.gov

Jackson Hughes is a downright lazy person. If you’re lucky, you might find him at the pool, but most of the time he is sitting at home and watching TV. During the summer he will be a working as a life-guard at his favorite pool, Deep Eddy. He enjoys playing on the com-puter, and has played piano for eight years now. He considers himself a Kung Fu master, and intends to retire at the age of 25 as a billionaire because of his revolutionary invention that he has not yet come up with.

Warren Zhou can be found anywhere where a person can lay down. Although not awake, he is fond of checking out his newly bought iPhone. Whether it’s watching tv shows or browsing through his iBooks library, he always has something to do instead of working on homework. If he’s surprisingly not sound asleep, he is busy fighting off other people with his mouse and keyboard. But beware, if you have food left unattended, it will surely be gone in the next five minutes.

Sai Sameer Pusapaty can be usually found at his desk doodling some designs or scribbling some math problems as a practice for the many math competitions he attends. He enjoys eating any foreign type of food, and yes, cherishes his sleep dearly. As an only child, he normally finds himself with a lot of free time, and if not sleeping, he spends it looking up the newest and coolest inventions of science.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS John Sebastian Bell is a man’s man. You might spot him in the ring with his black belt, kicking the other competitors to their doom. He volunteers weekly at his local karate school, teaching kids the ways of macho-ness and how to be a bit more like him. His “friends” call him a lot of things. But mainly, “creative.” He’s interested in making art but typically leaves the pages he works on worse than they were before. His greatest contribution to the magazine was his “creativity” and his contributions to the decision on the type of font to use as the body type.

Photo by Zachary Sessa

Photo by Zachary Sessa

Photo by Zachary Sessa

Photo by Zachary Sessa

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Photo by Zachary Sessa

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Letter from the Editors This is a magazine that delves into the realm of current breakthroughs of medical science. It discovers what is more to this world and discusses the newest of innovations of our world’s leading scientists. ModernMed is what informs societies today about where we stand in the nature of medicine. From diseases like cancer and AIDS, to the genetics of cloning, ModernMed is there to educate and inform. We found our interest in such a topic when we learned about the growing cases of cancer, and we wondered “what more is there?” and “how can we help?” We share our questions with latest research and the most credible answers from a variety of sources. This magazine will not only bring just facts and information to you, but expand on the edges of human curiosity.

Sincerely,Sai Sameer Pusapaty, Warren Zhou, Jackson Hughes and Sebastian Bell

Art Credit: Medical Practice

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Table of ContentsGlobal Disease Disaster

Creeping Cancer

DNA Sequencing

Fourth Horseman

Answer to Cancer

Taking Off with Technology

Cloning, a Window to the Future

Chronological Cloning

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14

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22

26

28

32

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Art Credit: Grabcad

Artist’s impression of a cancer cell during metastais. The Cancer cell utilizes red blood cells to start various tumors in many places throughout the body. Image by Wikipedia

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The Disease Lives OnT h e r a t e s o f c a n c e r a r e p r o j e c t e d t o i n c r e a s e b y 7 5 % b y 2 0 3 0 .

W h y i s t h i s h a p p e n i n g ? W h a t d o e s t h i s m e a n f o r u s n o w ?

B Y S A I S A M E E R P U S A P A T Y

David Bell had an unusual summer. Instead of a vaca-tion or a job, he was going to various radiation thera-pies. This was all in order to treat his prostate cancer. His other treatments included a hospitalization and hormone replacement medications. Mr. Bell does not have cancer anymore. But, he still feels the lasting effects of the ne-farious disease. “I was somewhat fatigued for a few months,” Bell said. “But [I] continued my career and lifestyle.” It was patients like Bell that modern cancer research has attempted to help. Ac-cording to the National Institute of Health, treatment has become easier. Detections have become more prominent and cheaper. Yet with all of this benevolence in the study of this disease, many scien-tists agree that the rates of cancer are actually projected to...increase. “Two factors are there,” Mukesh Varma, PhD, a cancer specialist at the National In-stitute of Health said. “Num-ber one lifestyle and that includes in western countries, especially US people who are stressed. It affects your im-mune system and then what-ever protection we have, the DNA and genes, all of those get disturbed. Second thing,

in food also, more and more people are going for fried food or saturated fat food, fast food, all those and whatever food that meat and vegetables come in is often contaminated with insecticides, pesticides and many things are there.” This research was present-ed back in July when French scientists examined global cancer rates and projected that the rates would increase by 70 percent by 2030. This rate would only increase even fur-ther with people of unhealthy lifestyles. But scientists like Varma do accept that some forms of cancer are indeed decreasing in rate. “Cancer like breast cancer, colon cancer, is reducing in cases,” Varma said. “Another thing is that lung cancer is detected early and there is reduced smoking. So in last seven, eight years we saw re-duction in that type of cancer. Similarly because of mammo-gram screening, breast cancer is reducing. Colon cancer also because of colonoscopy and detection and treatments are done and people live longer.” Scientists at the National Cancer Institute argue that it is not just these types of cancer and that it is in fact all of cancer that are showing signs of decrease. The NCI published many articles and reports concerning cancer

rates and have many statistics to back up their research. “From 2001-2010,” Monique Cropp, PhD, the re-searcher of Cancer Control in the NCI said. “Age-adjusted incidence rates for all can-cers combined declined 0.6 percent per year among men, were stable among women and increased by 0.8 percent per year among children 14 years and under as well as for children 19 years of age and younger.” Cropp agrees that the rate of incidence, the rates of can-cer, may not give the entire picture. Cropp believes that some statistics cannot entirely be accurate predictions for the future as the projection often depends on the time of detec-tion and early treatment. “A drop in screening rates

can also make it appear that incidence rates are lower while in fact some cancers will not be detected early,” Cropp said. “And may not be discovered until they are at a more advanced stage.” Varma said that many fac-tors really come into bringing a precise prediction. All the statistics and data are used for the results, but no exact idea can be proposed. “This is a logical step based on the previous data or whatever we do, what results are coming, I am telling based on that,” Varma said. “But nobody can guarantee what will happen.” Today, 461 new cases of cancer are detected in every 100,000 people within a population and with a mortal-ity rate of 178 people. This is

Cancer cells in the last few stages of their “death”. Image by Wikipedia

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Scanning electron microscopy image of a lymphocyte. Image from Wikipedia

“If you go to India lot of people get HPV leading to cervical cancer. In Africa, prostate and colon cancers are more. In U.S, [it’s] prostrate and breast cancers.

actually a decrease in deaths. Scientists like Cropp think that the reason behind the decrease of rates of mortality include the new advance-ments in technology and early detection rates of cancer. These types of advancements that help people like Bell recover from cancer. “[It took] 40 radiation treatments,” Bell said. “A hospitalization for radiation seed implantation at the Dato-li Cancer Center in Sarasota, FL and hormone replacement medications.” Many people may be hesitant to get a check up due to the price of treatment if cancer is diagnosed. No mat-ter what the type of cancer, the cost seems to always be colossal. This is the same rea-son Bell was dubious about receiving treatment. “I chose a complex and expensive treatment plan that cost approximately

$125,000,” Bell said. “With-out excellent coverage, I may not have had a choice in my treatment.” While early detection cer-tainly plays a part in cancer incidence, Varma believes that other “obvious” factors like genes and DNA only play five to eight percent of cancer diagnoses. He also believes that very few parents actually transfer cancer genes into their offspring, yet many people still assume it to be the root of the problem. “Long time ago,” Varma said. “People thought all dis-eases are genetic related.” Another commonly blamed root is the environment. Ac-cording to the Cancer Council of Australia, in Australia, there is a large ozone hole in the atmosphere. This allows more sunlight to hit the land. This has been correlated to the high rates of skin cancer. According to Varma, this is

not the only increase. “If you go to Japan, most people eat fish there in their diet. H. Pylori is in their system. So they get gastric cancer,” Varma said. “If you go to India lot of people get HPV leading to cervical cancer. In Africa, prostate and colon cancers are more. In U.S, [it’s] prostrate and breast cancers.” Most of the reason of the increase, Varma believes, is actually due to the lack of strict check ups and fear of the people. He thinks that the lack of education and people giving false information leads to false diagnoses and thus, an incorrect procedure. “ Many times what hap-pens is that when people go for doctor for checkup, when they ask, ‘Do you do exer-cise?’, [they reply] ‘Yeah! I do everyday for half an hour,’, ‘What do you eat?’, ‘I eat fruits and vegetables’,”’ Varma said. “They lie! If people lie, the analysis will not be good.” These ‘lies’ go on further

-Mukesh Varma,

8

”

A false color image. This is a pancreatic cancer cell. This type of cell is also known a lymphocyte. Image using scanning electron microscopy. Image by Wikipedia.

to give false data and scientif-ic research is hampered. For-tunately, Varma confirms that the solution to the dreaded situation may lie in the sim-plest and sensible answer, the willingness of human to get a check up. “Treatment should be done. After treatment then follow up,” Varma said. “That is more important.” Scientists like Varma will continue to work hard and find better ways to treat such a horrid disease. New technology will continue to be produced and mortality are expected to go down. Even with all these improvements, Varma still believes that the

true power to stop cancer lies with the people. “If they are aware that they’re going for early screen-ing and follow like common sense exercise and [are] tak-ing more fruits and vegetables and [are] being less stressed those kinds of things if they do,” Varma said. “It will be better for the society.”

This woman is being checked up on by her local doctor for any malignant mam-mory cancer indications. Image by Wikipedia.

Lung Cancer Cells Pictrure by Wikipedia

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Creeping Cancer

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PROSTATELUNG BREAST COLON

In February the World Health Organization published its cancer report. The cancer report is a set of globalized data that studies the causes and prevention of cancer. The report stated that incidence or rate of cancer cases was actually increasing. It has been three months since, but chances are none of us have really been feeling the effects of these predicted ‘increases.’ In fact, with all the latest news about recent technological innovations in the field of medicine, one might have expected the rates to drop. So what exactly are these ‘shocking’ statistics, and what do they really mean for us today?

THE CURRENT CASES

REGION STATS

E F F E C T S O N U SOne in five men will get cancer by the age of 75.

Over 70 percent of people who died from cancer come from..

A S I A

A F R I C A

S O U T H AM E R I C A

S T O R I E S A N D G R A P H I C S B Y S A I S A M E E R P U S A P A T Y

By 2034 cancer rates will rise from 14 to 22 million cases annually.

Art Credit: Wikipedia

Num

ber o

f ca

ncer

cas

es

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“The most shocking thing about this re-port’s prediction...is that up to half of all cases could be pre-

vented,”

One in eight men and One in 12 women will die

from cancer. $ 1.16 TRILLIONThe cost of treatment and prevention of

the disease has cost

Cancer cases are projected to increase by

57%

DEATH COUNT

By 2034 cancer rates will rise from 14 to 22 million cases annually.

-Jean King, PhD.

These are statistics taken from many sources including CNN, CBS News, and the NY Times. All the data was compiled from the UN Cancer Report. These show num-bers from the recent pro-jection of increased rates of cancer.

Summary

Art Credit: Wikipedia

Art Credit: Wikipedia

Art Credit: Wikipedia

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Golden Age of Genetics Dna Sequencing Changes The WorldAdvancements in biotechnology create a bright new future for humankind and the world.

B Y J O H N S E B A S T I A N B E L L

Imagine a shift in technol-ogy so great that its shed bil-lions of dollars from its use. That technology is here. “This is the next big shift. And its going to have this tremendous impact and what that impact might be is any-one’s guess,” biology teacher, Brittany Hopkins said. From the secrets of our ge-nome to the development of the food that feeds us. DNA manipulation and mapping has always been valuable but an advancement in technol-ogy have brought us to the golden age of genetics and dna science. DNA sequencing has sped our discovery up to levels of great enlightenment, or potential danger. “We’ve been able to se-quence DNA for decades but the technology wasn’t there yet,” Hopkins said. DNA sequencing is the pro-cess of determining the order

of nucleotides within a DNA molecule as Genome.gov explains. It is important for almost all aspects of genetics, biotechnology and profes-sion or area of science that involves DNA. Early DNA sequencing techniques took huge amounts of manpower and required great attention to detail and took large amounts of time. In fact one of the first complete sequencing of a hu-man genome (performed in 1988) took 3 billion dollars. “Essentially we have the ability to sequence an entire human genome in less than a day and with all that informa-tion comes a lot of power. We are able to do comparative genome studies, to get better insights into how a person’s personal genome compares to others and sort of what implications that may have for drug development, disease treatment and a variety of

Image of a DNA Helix.Taken from http://watchdog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/11/shutterstock_61775431.jpg

“This is the next big shift. And its going to have this tremendous impact and what that impact might be is anyone’s guess” said freshman biology teacher at LASA

High School, Brittany Hopkins14

other issues,” biotechnology teacher, Joseph Oleniczak said. Recently, with a shift in computational technology and the ability for more automat-ed machines DNA sequenc-ing became faster than ever, explains Oleniczak. What used to take weeks now takes days. Automated systems and computers have been able to

maximize the efficiency of sequencing. For example it is now possible to get a human genome sequenced for around a thousand dollars from vari-ous companies. “There are a lot of implica-tions to human health and

to deeper understanding of evolutionary relationships,” said Hopkins The speed of DNA se-quencing is what held back developments in the fields of genetics and biotechnology explained Hopkins Without

access to the dna informa-tion it is nearly impossible to achieve anything in the fields of genetics and biotechnol-ogy. This technology is used to learn more and more about what genes cause illness and how therapies and medicines

“Probably in ways we can’t comprehend yet,” said science teacher at LASA High School Alex Salinas

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Image of large genetically modifed cows. Notice the large tumor like muscles. Taken from Belgimex

“Some of the hopes with genetic en-gineering that maybe we can improve

people’s standard of living,” said freshman biology teacher at LASA High School

Brittany Hopkins

cooperate with those genes. They can also now track the genes through an evolution-ary line. Seeing what genes sustained and what genes died off. Giving humanity a greater understanding about how evolution works and how genes pass on. “Well we are to the point, or getting to the point, that I don’t think it would be far-fetched to you go into your doctor’s office and he would

have access to your entire genome and he or she could make sort of prescribe cer-tain drugs and therapies that are tailored to your personal genome,” Oleniczak said. One of the many applica-tions of this technology is its possible use in medicine explained Oleniczak. It is now possible to identify dis-eases and disorders passing through family trees. It can be then used to identify what genes they come from and determine treatments for the disease and disorders using this information. And like Oleniczak said it is possible to compare the genomes of people with these illnesses and see what treatments and therapies are maximized to help the person with these ailments. “Some of the hopes with genetic engineering that maybe we can improve

people’s standard of living,” Hopkins said. Genetics has already been used to improve our standard of living explains MediIndia.net. Genetically-modified foods have been developed which are better optimized for harvest and can grow more food and survive pests and pesticides. The capability is possesed to also manipulate the genes of livestock, making them

healthier, larger easier to feed and more fatty. This allows humanity to produce more food for a growing planet and also create food easier to grow.(So how does the expansion of biology and genetics directly affect us?) “Probably in ways we can’t comprehend yet,” said science teacher Alex Salinas. This technology has extremely large applications to the extent that humanity and the scientific community don’t know how many ways it can be used explained Salinas. With such a massive a shift in knowledge the scientific community will continue to find new applications of this technology, hopefully in a way that will benefit mankind. ( Do you have positive hopes for this technology?)

Piece if corn. Genetically modified to be larger and tastier.

Taken from Infomg

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“There are a lot of implications to human health and to deeper understanding of evolutionary relationships,” Hopkins said.

DNA Sequencing Facility, demonstrates the size and use of computers. Taken from http://www.poiinc.org/wp-content/uploads/BGI-200x194.png

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Hopefully we... think things though and don’t do anything too crazy. Explains Salinas, with new technology there are always great risks. There are possibly unforeseen implications of the use of this technology. Science fiction always warns us of the possibility of mistakes by using new understood technology. But

humanity can hope that it is used in a careful way, and further the betterment of mankind. “This is the next big shift. And its going to have this tremendous impact and what that impact might be is anyone’s guess,” biology teacher, Brittany Hopkins.said.

Image of working lab.

Taken from http://louisvillesurgery.com/images/physClinTrials.jpg

FOURTH HORSEMANPlague and disease through

the ages of manEpidemics have ravaged the human population for years and according to many have the largest potential to cause human extinction. As urban enviorments increase in population the potential for epidemics and hu-man extinction grows with it. Therefore it is important to understand the past and learn from our mistakes in the treatment of epidemics.

B Y J O H N S E B A S T I A N B E L L

BLACK DEATHSUMMARY: Transmitted by rats “The Black Death” killed almost a third of Europe’s pop-ulation. Twelve Genoese trading ships landed in Sicily where rats from the ship entered the city carrying the disease on the fleas carried by the rats. The black death had a huge im-pact on the Medieval era of Europe.

SYMPTOMS: Vomiting, chills, sores with puss and in many cases eventually death.

DEATH COUNT: 75 million people.

DATE: Early 1340s to 1350s

TRANSMISSION: Fleas carried by ratsPainting of the Black Death. Taken from Wikipedia

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SPANISH FLUSUMMARY: The Spanish Flu is known as the deadliest pandemic in modern history. At its height it infected one third of the world’s population. The flu was especially known for its tendency to affect soldiers fighting in The Great War.

SYMPTOMS: Turning blue, coughing, lungs filling with fluid

DEATH COUNT: 100 million people

DATE: 1918 - 1919

TRANSMISSION: Coughing, talking, air

HIV/AIDsSUMMARY: From its origins in non-human primates in the early 20th century HIV/AIDs has affected millions around the globe for years. It moved to affect sub-saharan Africa and the whole world.

SYMPTOMS: Autoimmune system turns on itself. Die from infection from separate dis-ease or ailment.

DEATH COUNT: 36 Million people

DATE: Early 20th century to now

TRANSMISSION: Sexual or blood

Nurse carrying spanish flu casuality. Taken from Wikipedia

Women with HIV/AIDs in Liberia. Taken from Journeywithjesus.net

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This type of rare cancer has been treated by the new innovative treatment, immunotherapy. Photo by Wikipedia.

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Answer to Cancer Cancer has been a prominent problem in the world, now the best solution has been found.

B Y W A R R E N Z H O U

Six years ago, David Gobin discovered that he had lung cancer and after many years of different treatments the cancer went away. Although the cancer was gone, he lost 70 pounds from the treat-ment and two years water he was in-formed that the cancer had come back and had spread to his chest. Then his doctor recommended that he try this new drug from an immunotherapy strategy to get rid of the cancer, the cancer tumor has shrunk considerably and has not come back, even though he stopped taking the drug about a year ago. “I had some restrictions with my physical ability,” Gobin said. “I starting having a lot of fatigue everyday and after the cancer came back I had pain from the surgery.” People such as Gobin, who are determined to get through cancer and live a happy and prosperous life, show why we researchers keep trying to find new and better methods to treat cancer. Because of this, immunotherapy was discovered and now is the most prominent cancer treatment out there. “I would recommend using the immunotherapy drug I used,” Gobin said. “Although chemotherapy, radiation and surgery didn’t work for me, they could work for other people.” Gobin said there’s always more options to choose from than the ones he chose and that you should experiment with what works best. “Well, I believe the pros of immunotherapy are that it’s far more effective than other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy,” Dr. Drew Pardoll, the immunotherapy research director at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said. “Immunotherapy don’t have many side effects, unlike chemotherapy which helps get rid of fast growing cancer cells but

can also damage healthy red blood cells.” Pardoll thinks that even though other treatments have side effects, that they aren’t bad choices when looking into getting cancer cured. “Well, in the 1970s, the mortal-ity rate was about 200 deaths per 100,000 people, but around 7 years ago it is around 175 deaths per 100,000,” Pardoll said. “Not much of a change, although immuno-therapy wasn’t around at the time of 2007. The mortality rate hasn’t dropped much over the years but the incidence rate has increased from the 1970s to now.” Pardoll stated that the incidence rate has increased due to earlier diagnosis. “Next I feel like starting from treatments like surgery and chemotherapy, we’ve finally reached a point where we can take care of cancer with our own bodies,” Dr. James Gulley said, the branch chief of immunotherapy research at the National Institute of Health. “It’s amazing really.” Gulley believes there may be future solutions to solve cancer other than immunotherapy. “I believe that lasers can be used to more effectiveness than immunothera-py,” Gulley said.

Gulley believes that there are risks for laser treatment due to malfunc-tions in technology or human tasks. He also believes the laser might not always hit the cancer cells to ensure effectiveness. “This is a problem with other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation,” Gulley said. “Those treat-ments work but they also damage healthy cells along with cancer cells, so the patient ends up with some side effects.” Gulley believes that immuno-therapy isn’t the best solution for everyone, immunotherapy is good due to it’s low risks, although it’s different for everyone, chemotherapy might be better for someone else. “I spent a lot of money for the cancer treatment, I believe over $150,000 to finally get where I am now, although it was worth it, money is nothing if you don’t get to use it on anything,” Gobin said. The cost of cancer is still really high and Dr. Pardoll doesn’t think that it will drop anytime soon. According to cancer.net, cancer isn’t insured by any health insurance right now, making it really difficult for people in the lower class to af-ford cancer treatment. This being said, the

This cancer patient is being checked by her doctor and to see if there are any treatments that she can take. Photo by Wikipedia.

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lower class can get loans to help afford the treatment they need, this has no downside because two things can happen, one is that the patient lives and has to pay off the debt or two, the patient dies and the debt gets dissolved. Gobin said he lost 70 pounds from the treatment by taking many differ-ent treatments that weren’t immunotherapy. Using the anti PD-1 drug, he has got rid of the problem without many side effects. “It was terrifying, when I found out I had lung cancer, I was scared and wanted help immediately, Gobin said.” “I looked in to many different cancer methods and found three that I was able to try. I did started off with chemotherapy and radiation and that stopped the cancer for about two years.” The doctors told him the cancer was back and it spread to his chest. They asked him to try a new drug and he agreed. “I didn’t care anymore, anything that might work, might as well try it right,” Gobin said. “I took it and my tumors have shrunk significantly and have not grown.” Pardoll has researched immu-notherapy for a long time and Gobin has been saved by the advanced treatment of immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is both a safe and effective way to get rid of cancer. “I believe that immunotherapy cancer treatment is both the most safe and most effective due what the treatment does,” Pardoll said. “Because cancer cells have an invisible protective shield, immu-notherapy drugs come and get rid of that and allow your white blood cells to kill the cancer cells, since this allows your body to kill the cancer cells, it’s far more safe than other methods of cancer treatment such as chemotherapy and radiation which pose side effects to a person’s health. It is also the most effective because the treatment al-lows only cancer cells to be destroyed and your body does it efficiently, while other treatments kill healthy and cancer cells and this wavers the effectiveness of those treat-ments.” Pardoll not only believes im-munotherapy is the safest, but the most effective, showing the advancement in technology the human race has progressed through the past. Even though it is the most effective and is the safest treatment, there can always be ways to make the treatment

Neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cell and the first line of defense against invading microbes. Photo by Wikipedia.

better. “I also believe that we can increase the amount of white blood cells along with getting rid of the protective shield, this will haste cancer treatment a great amount,” Pardoll said. The past has been tough on cracking down on the solutions to sickness or diseases. But with sickness and diseases evolving, the treatments have to follow and evolve too. “I feel like over the decades cancer treatment have progressively got-ten more effective and safe to use. Before immunotherapy we improved the cancer treatments we had such as surgery, chemo-therapy and radiation,” Pardoll said. “The

only thing that hasn’t changed much is the cost of cancer treatment. Cancer treatment has always been on the pricey side when it comes to treatment, I don’t think this will change in the near future.” Even though immunotherapy is regarded as the best cure for cancer right now, it doesn’t work for everyone. Some-times people need other treatments to get rid of their cancer, according to Pardoll. “I feel like other treatments are effective as well as immunotherapy but there’s always risks with most of the other treatments, things can go wrong with the damage to healthy calls due to radiation and chemotherapy and surgery

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can be a painful procedure that doesn’t always work out,” Gulley said. “I stopped taking the drug about a year ago and now I’m so happy,” Gobin said. “Even though I still have cancer, I’m alive and I can enjoy the rest of my life.”

I believe that immunotherapy cancer treat-ment is both the most safe and most effective due what the treatment does. Because cancer cells have an invisible protective shield, immunotherapy drugs come and get rid of that and allow your white blood cells to kill the cancer cells. -Dr. Drew Pardoll

“

”

A DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the center cytosine. Methylation plays an important role for epigenetic gene regulation in development and cancer. Photo by Wikipedia

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Two pancreatic cancer cells. Photo by Wikipedia

Taking Off with TechnologyB y W A R R E N Z H O U

Electronic Aspirin 1 2 3

Needle-Free Diabetes Care

Cutting Back on Melanoma Biopsies

A harmless melanoma mole that is found out with the new technology, now the patient won’t get excessive scars and cost. Photo by Huffington post.

Melanoma has a lot of the dangerous looking moles that are actually harmless. A handheld tool that has been approved by the FDA is used to find more information about the mole to see if it is dangerous or not. This will reduce the amount of biopsies required and also reduce the cost and scars left behind from the biopsy.

The technology involves a handheld device that removes the top-layer skin cells to put the patient’s blood chemistry within sig-nal range of a patch-borne biosensor.

The sensor collects one reading per minute and sends the data wirelessly to a remote monitor, triggering audible alarms when levels go out of the patient’s optimal range and tracking glucose levels over time.

Diabetes patch to give insulin and there’s no needle or pain. Photo by firm guide.

Headaches are located in the upper gum on the side of the head, here, there will be a permanent implant of a small nerve stimulating device.

When someone senses the headache, s/he puts a on handheld remote on their cheek nearest to the implant of the stimulating device.The resulting signals cause the pain-causing neurotrans-mitters to be blocked.

A handheld remote to controlthe nerve stimulating device. Photo by ASME.

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In March 2013, the American Society of Medical Engineers (ASME) presented the recent top new innovations in technology. Although the technology has been made, it is not released to the market since it is not yet approved. This has put a lot of society in the dark about the new technologies coming in the future, but soon these new innovative technologies will be released for the public to use. So what are these new technologies and how will they change the way we get healthy.

The immunity of AIDS in babies proves that AIDS might be gone soon. Photo by replymagazine.

4 5 6Poor Quality Eggs into Healthy Ones

Road to the End of AIDS

Less is MoreGenerally, kids need many doses to be protected from cer-tain diseases such as HPV, but the latest research shows that one dose of vaccine generated 24 times more antibodies than your body after the infection.

It isn’t clear whether these lev-els would be sufficient enough to protect against infection, but the results suggest that one dose might just be enough.

Multiple doses aren’t needed anymore due to the amount of antibodies now given with one dose. Photo by welles-leyinc.

A pediatrician at University of Mississippi Medical Cen-ter has given a HIV positive baby a potent drug cocktail and now the HIV is gone.

Two years later, the HIV has not come back even though the baby has stopped taking the drug.

Recently, researchers at Stanford University developed a technique that helps women with ovarian insufficiency to produce healthy, mature eggs again.

This involves removing the ovary or part of the ovarian tissue, then treating it in a lab with proteins, after this the tissue is placed back into the fallopian tubes.

One women has volunteered and produced a healthy baby through this process.

A egg that has turned from a poor quality to a health. Photo by news.com.

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Cloning, a Window to the Future The future of cloning has been bleak due to the ethnic and social stan-dards of our time, but as our culture changes, the possi-bilities of cloning have begun to shift, and scientific and medical breakthroughs are becoming a reality. “The reason we are not able to excel future in the field of cloning is because of people and mainly their religious views,” Duane C. Kraemer, a cloning professor at A&M, said. With these new possibilities coming into the cloning field, the future of cloning is beginning to change. This revolutionary field is just now beginning to head onto the professional medical path in all shapes and sizes, where as before it was simply part of the experimen-tal testing field. “Cloning can be used for the cloning of vital human organs that could be used for transplants in the future. As it is today, trans-plants are very inconvenient because the organ will come from another person’s body, increasing the risk of organ denial,” Irina Polejaeva, a re-searcher at ViaGen (a cloning researching company), says.Cloning can be used to help medical sciences all through-out the field, especially when it comes to the cloning of organs for transplants in animals, and even possibly humans.

As the field of cloning changes, previously merely revolutionary ideas for medical science are beginning to become a reality!

B y : J a c k s o n H u g h e s

Dolly the sheep was the first ever cloned animal, and was a revolutionary advancement for cloning field. By: Wikipedia

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The extraction of a cell in order to put it into another cell for the making of a genetically engineered cell, and then a cloned animal. By foodengineeringlab.com

This can especially be useful with cloning organs of healthy, or even unique, animals to benefit other ani-mals. A major problem in our society today is the problem of organ transplant shortages and logistical problems. This includes how there are only a few number of healthy organs out there for use, and waiting lists can be very long, lasting up to years on end. Also, the chances of a successful hu-man organ transplant are slim at the start, and even if the organ is successfully accepted by the body, the after effects of it are often life threatening. With the new breakthroughs of cloning coming out, we are getting closer and closer to being able to actually clone human vital organs, allowing for safe, produc-tive and cheaper sources of organ transplants. When a cloned organ is transplanted for a person, that organ, say the heart, would be the exact same of the bodies previous working organ. This means that any chance of organ denial by the body would be eliminated. This great break-through in cloning has the possibility

to change the risks and problems of the medical field dramatically. However, clon-ing doesn’t only have a future in possible transplant technol-ogy for humans. As Mark E. Westhusin explains, cloning can be used in simple animals to produce dramatic effects. “Genetic modifica-tion has been used as a pow-erful tool to help in genetic modification of animals by modifying the cell line first, you take the cell line, you modify the cell line so its ge-netically engineered, and then you use that genetically engi-neered cell line to clone, and then you have a genetically modified animal,” Westhusin says. New breakthroughs in animal cloning are coming out where animals are being used to produce drug and health related substances. Westhusin, a geneticist and cloning expert at Texas A&M, has been working with in the cloning of animals for 24 years now, and he and his team have developed new ways of producing pharma-ceutical drugs from the milk and other sources of animals.

“ You use that genetically engineered cell line to clone, and then you have a geneti-cally modified animal.

As Westhusin says, “I took the cell line for instance, and then modified the cell line so that it would produce a compound in the milk called antithrombin 3, which is an anti-clotting drug, and then I used those cells, that were modified for clon-ing, and produced goats, that then produced antithrombin 3 in the milk, and then we were able to take the milk, and ex-tract the protein, and then sell it as a pharmaceutical, which is a 200 million dollar a year market.” This new way of genetic cloning is a great breakthrough within the field of medical science,

Cloned pair of cows that were created bu genetically engineering one of their cells, and then placing that cell into an embryo. By foodengineeringlab.com

“Mark Westhusin, Genetic Engineer at A&M, said.

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and it has the possibility of even curing many currently incurable genetic diseases, such as AIDs, Tay-Sachs and Progeria. Of course, the future of cloning has other possibilities as well. New ways of cloning are coming out, ones that increase the efficiency and possibilities of cloning, ones that people like Kraemer know a lot about. “Called cold fusion cloning, this new possible method of cloning could be the next new thing for cloning individual strands of DNA or polymerase,” Kraemer says. “It allows you to directly clone any PCR products to any linearized expression vector, at any site.”

“This new pos-sible method of cloning could pos-sibly be the next new thing.

The field of cloning in the recent past has been unreliable, inefficient and not practical. However, the field of cloning is becoming a new thing as the methods used to clone are becoming quicker, more efficient and simply more innovative. These new methods of cloning have opened up new doors towards cloning in all aspects. Cloning specialist working at Texas A&M currently moving genetically

modi fied material into new host cells.Picture taken by www.wisegeek.com.

Newest cloned animal species in the world. This white tale deer was cloned by genetic cloning experts at Texas A&M. Picture was taken by vetmed.tamu.edu

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These goats have been genetically modified to produce gnetically modified milk that has pharmecudical proteins within it. These are the first ever genetically modified animals to produce a drug related protein or substance withing their byproducts. Many other animals are being studied. Photo by www.lsuagcenter.com.

One of these new doors include the cloning of human organs, which are more complicated and larger than the subsequent animal organs. However, because of our society’s ethnic and social standards, the cloning indus-try has been at a stand still. As Kraemer says, “the problem is, many people don’t believe that it is ethically correct to clone organisms or parts of organ-isms, because of either their religion, or just because of their belief in general. That has been a major problem with the field of cloning in the past, and because of eth-nic laws and regulations, we have been unable to legally perform cloning exercises upon, one, humans, and two, any part of a human.” These laws have halted the process of cloning and have prevented further progress to occur within the field itself.

Thankfully for the cloning field though, our society is constantly changing, and this continuous denial is becoming less and less of a problem, therefore allowing a greater number of breakthroughs in the field to become possible. Scientist like Westhusin will continue to further advance the processes and possibilities of cloning, and will always be working towards the next new thing in this revolutionary new field. “Cloning is a great thing for science,” Polejaeva says, “and it can drasti-cally change our society as a whole.”

“Cloning is a great thing for science, and it can drastically change our society as a whole.

“ Possible future of cloning involving the cloning of human beings using more advanced methods of cloning and genetic engineering. By blogs.saschina.org.

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Chronological CloningB Y J A C K S O N H U G H E S

Lost in the midst of all the buzz about cloning is the fact that cloning is nothing new: its rich scientif-ic history spans more than 100 years, however, just like all technology, our knowledge and understanding of cloning has been increasing exponentially, says the Genetic Science Learning Center. The major landmarks and breakthroughs shown in the following timeline gives a picture of how every point on it changed the field of coning in its own way, and how in the long run, they all added up to create the revolutionary field it has become today. The following information was gathered from the Genetic Science Learning Center.

Robert Briggs and Thomas King transferred the nucleus from an early tadpole embryo into an enucleated frog egg (a frog egg from which the nucleus had been removed). The resulting cell developed into a tadpole.

1952: First Nuclear Transfer

John Gurdon created tadpoles that were genetically identical to the one from which the intestinal cell was taken, kicking off the start to differenciated cell in cloning.

1958: Different Cell Transfer

This experiment showed that mammali-an embryos could be created by nuclear transfer. Using a glass pipette as a tiny straw, Derek Bromhall transferred the nucleus from a rabbit embryo cell into an enucleated rabbit egg cell.

1975: First Mammal Embryo

1984: First Mammal Made

Steen Willadsen used a chemi-cal process to separated one cell from an 8-cell lamb embryo. Then he used a small electrical shock to fuse it to an enucleated egg cell. As luck would have it, the new cell started dividing. This experiment showed that it was possible to clone a mammal by nuclear transfer—and that the clone could fully develop. Even though the donor nuclei came from early embryonic cells, the experiment was considered a great success.

First ever genetically modified rabbit. english.sina.com

Steen Willadsen. martinfrost.wsCloning process for tadpoles by Gurdon. npr.org32

This experiment added cows to the list of mammals that could be cloned by nuclear transfer. Still, mamma-lian cloning was limited to using embryonic cells as nuclear donors.

1987: Nuclear Transfer From Cell

After the successes leading up to Dolly, scientists cloned several more animals that had never been thought possible to be cloned. Among them were trans-genic animals, clones made from fetal and adult cells, and a male mouse; all previous clones had been female, by Keith Campbell and Ian Wilmut.

1998-1999: Variety of New Animals Cloned.

Overcoming decades of techni-cal challenges, Mitalipov and colleagues were the first to use somatic cell nuclear trans-fer to create a human embryo that could be used as a source of embryonic stem cells. The resulting stem cell lines were specific to the patient they came from, a baby with a rare genetic disorder. In this experi-ment, researchers took a skin cell from the patient and fused it with a donated egg cell.

2013: Human Stem Cells Created Nuclear Transfer

In this landmark experiment, Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell created a lamb by transferring the nucleus from an adult sheep’s udder cell into an enucleated egg. Never before had a mammal been cloned from an adult somatic cell. This famous lamb, named Dolly, brought cloning into the lime-light. Her arrival started conver-sations about the implications of cloning, bringing controversies over human cloning and stem cell research into the public eye.

1996: Dolly, First Mamal Created Nuclear Transfer

Don Wolf’s team of scientists fused early-stage embryonic cells with enucleated monkey egg cells using a small electri-cal shock. The resulting em-bryos were then implanted into surrogate mothers, producing the first ever cloned primate.

1997: First Primate Cloned Nuclear Transfer

Cloned cows of 1998 durring vast expansion of cloned species. foodengineeringmag.com Cloned pigs from nuclear transfer. arbg.missouri.edu

Dolly, the first cloned sheep. thesun.co.uk33

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