Sickle Cell Treatment Not Linked to Cancer

  How Scientists Shot Down Cancer’s ‘Death Star’      Can scientists really shoot down cancer's death star? According to an article in The New York Times written by Gina Kolata, it could be a possibility. During a long 40 years of hard work and effort, teachers were able to succeed in defeating one of the most common cancer-causing mutations in the human body. By finding this genetic mutation scientists believe that patients with lung or colorectal cancer have a better chance of living a longer life. Scientists also believe that finding this mutation will help lead to better drugs o reduce the spread of cancer in all patients.      It is hard to believe that this is is a real scientific finding and hits close to home. Back in 2010, my brother was diagnosed with Burkitt's Leukemia, and shortly after that my best friend's sister and my uncle were both diagnosed with severe brain tumors. Although they did not have  lung or colorectal cancer I wonder how this scientific discove

  How Do Blind Worms See the Color Blue?      In an article from The New York Times, an author named Veronique Greenwood writes about how blind worms can see the color blue. One of the first things he mentions is how in a lab experiment the researchers place worms on top of different microbe species to see if the worms will devour the toxic species or if they will move away to eat the safe species for dinner. One of the microbe species that blind worms know are toxic is pseudomonas aeruginosa; scientists know that the worms know it is dangerous because they slither away furiously.      The main researcher in this working theory was Dipon Ghosh, a graduate student from Yale University in Cellular and Molecular Physiology. One of his thoughts that lead him to think that worms could see blue was that  pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bright blue shade. A way that he proved this hypothesis was that he conducted an experiment at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology using worms, patches of 

  Genetic Testing, I Took a Chance on an ‘Imperfect’ Pregnancy        In The New York Times, an author named Karolin Schnoor wrote an article about how pregnant women/ parents signed up for genetic testing on their babies that weren't even born yet. The article titled  "After Genetic Testing, I Took a Chance on an ‘Imperfect’ Pregnancy"  talks specifically about a woman who has always been a late bloomer in life. Specifically when it came to meeting her husband, getting married, and trying to start a family. Once she was there she was pushing 40 and as most people might know the older you get the harder it is to have children on your own.     In the article, it talks about how genetic testing first started in the 1990s but it was very minimal and just gave the eggs a name or classified them as good or bad depending on their genetic makeup. Also, a specific name was given for eggs and it is "mosaic". In the eggs/ embryos are mosaic they can either have a high or

  Sickle Cell Treatment Shows It Is Not Linked To Cancer           An article named   " Sickle Cell Treatment Not Linked to Cancer, Researchers Say"  talks about how just after a few weeks of working on gene therapy researchers have already proven that it is not linked to cancer. Throughout this article in The New York Times, they also describe the treatment and study methods that they used.     There was also a separate sickle cell trial held at Bostons Children's Hospital but it was soon shut down when Bluebird Bio stated that two cancers were found but they were being funded/ getting the study paid for by the National Institute of Health. The researchers in this study were asking the National Institute of Health to resume their work but they were not allowed to. Article:   Sickle Cell Treatment Not Linked to Cancer, Researchers Say - The New York Times (nytimes.com) About Sickle Cell Treatment:  ADAKVEO® (crizanlizumab-tmca) | Health Care Providers (novartis.com)

    Unlocking the Covid Code      The New York Times recently published an article about how scientists can now sequence an entire genome overnight and how they think this is the secret key they have been looking for in solving the COVID-19 pandemic. The scientists that have been conducting this research think that this will very useful when tracking and identifying different strands of the corona virus. Early in January, a scientist in Australia named  Edward Holmes reached out to a scientist in China named  Yong-Zhen Zhang . On the phone, they were talking about how  Yong-Zhen Zhang  has sequenced a genome of corona that was affecting the people in Wuhan.     Since  Yong-Zhen Zhang was able to isolate the genetic makeup of this strand and published it around the world many doctors were able to get their hands on it to help come up with the perfect pharmaceutical mixture to help cure the strain. They did not view the genetic sequence as an illness; they looked at it as a computer code