3-D human 'mini-brains' shed new light on genetic underpinnings of major mental illness: Using human stem cells, researchers create 3-D model of the brain to study a mutation tied to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Robby Schetlick

AP Biology

Ippolito

CE 22

4/19/18

Brigham and Women's Hospital. "3-D human 'mini-brains' shed new light on genetic underpinnings of major mental illness: Using human stem cells, researchers create 3-D model of the brain to study a mutation tied to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 April 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180419141530.htm>.

The article I am reviewing is called is about the new use of “3-D mini brains” in research of mental disorders posted recently on sciencedaily. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital are using new technology and techniques to investigate a gene- DISC1- which when mutated is a likely factor in many mental illnesses. This is evidenced by many families with mental illness history all have mutations on this gene. What these researchers are essentially doing is using human stem cells to culture “mini brains” to model human brain development. Using this new technology, they can investigate the interactions in the human cells from a three dimensional perspective, which opens up many more new routes of investigation than previously available when technology only allowed for two dimensional models. After various testing described in the article, the researcher used the new model to conclude that the WNT pathway (which is a signaling pathway for patterning organs in development of the brain) may be responsible for observed structural disruptions in the DISC1 mutant brains. This opens many possibilities for future mental illness therapy, if the researchers can identify the problem more conclusively in the future.

This article is relevant to our society because of how it exemplifies technology as an important part of progressing in science. These researchers that were previously limited by 2D technology are now able to investigate and continue their research in literally a whole new dimension. Already, this has lead to discoveries and hypotheses regarding the brain topic. But on a larger scale, technology is becoming increasingly necessary in our lives, and now even more so in our development as a species. It is always important to continue investigating using new technologies, as eventually we will be able to cross over past roadblocks with ease by approaching them from a new angle with new technology.

The article is generally is a nice, simple, and eye catchy article. It is strong because it makes sure to define all its concepts and vocabulary so that the average reader can get the gist of the article. Although, it could be improved by trying to stick to its main points rather than get very specific, which detrated from the focus of the article, especially when it is clearly already compressed for length. It could be improved by cutting out all of the examples of the DISC1 experiments, and just going straight to the WNT conclusion, for example. Other than those minor errors, it’s a good article.

E. Coli Outbreak Tied to Romaine Lettuce Expands to 16 States.

Luke Redman

Mr.Ippolito

AP Biology

Current Event #22

Chokshi, Niraj. “E. Coli Outbreak Tied to Romaine Lettuce Expands to 16 States.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/us/e-coli-romaine-lettuce.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront.

This week, I read Niraj Chokshi’s article for the New York Times, “E. Coli Outbreak Tied to Romaine Lettuce Expands to 16 States.” Recently, there was an outbreak of escherichia coli (E. Coli) from chopped Romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona. “The agency was first alerted to the outbreak by health officials in New Jersey, who had noticed an increase in E. coli cases in the state, said Dr. Laura Gieraltowski, an epidemiologist at the C.D.C. After some discussion, it became clear that many of those infected had eaten chopped romaine lettuce at restaurants before getting sick.” The disease has now spread to multiple restaurants in 16 different states and has now affected 53 people, with over half of them being admitted to hospitals. All restaurants have been advised to throw out lettuce from the area, even if they are not sure if it is Romaine.

This affects us all because most of us have eaten salad within the past couple of days, and there is a possibility that some of us could have been affected by E. Coli. The widespread outbreak affects the local communities where the victims are located, and also the victim’s families.

The overall article was very well written, the quotes from officials were woven in beautifully. Also the pace of the article went well with the topic, urgent but not panicked. The only thing i wish that the author included was the side effects of E. Coli, but that can be fixed with a very quick search. I look forward to reading more articles from this author.

Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.

Julia Pabafikos

Mr. Ippolito

AP Biology

19 April 2018

Maxmen, Amy. “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetically-modified-browning-resistant-apple-reaches-u-s-stores/.

The article I decided to read, “Genetically Modified Browning-Resistant Apple Reaches U.S. Stores.” by Amy Maxen deals with genetically modified organisms and how society has come to benefit larger companies rather than the farmers. The article goes into further detail about a specific product, in this case being an apple that has been modified in order not to brown. The company has been able to figure out how to delete a gene encoding an enzyme that causes plant cells to brown when exposed to oxygen. Therefore, if this apple sells, it will pave the way for others similar products. For example, companies have been engineering a mushroom that resists browning. Maxman mentions that the apple was created with attributes to please consumers due to the fact that apples tend to brown so quickly. However, the creators of this apple haven’t gone far enough in telling consumers how the apple was made. The company does not mention GMOs on the apple bags ; instead, the bags have a QR code which links to online information when it is scanned by a smartphone. It is concerning due to the fact that not everyone has a smartphone, and even if you have one, you aren’t going to check every product’s ingredients with it. “The company has had subsequent surveys of people in America’s top apple-growing states—New York and Washington— which revealed that about 20% were wary of GMOs.” But the company also found that many people changed their minds when told that the apples were engineered to silence browning genes, and then tested for safety. It is important to not repeat the mistakes of the GMO industries in the past, but rather educate people on the product they are purchasing.

This article is relevant to society in that many people are purchasing genetically modified products in supermarkets without even realizing it. Genetically modifying products has become a popular way of expanding the shelf time of products. Many businesses, a firm in New York City that is developing fish fillets from fish stem cells and another business developing hamburgers from stem cells of cows. It is important that people become aware of the products they are purchasing in their local supermarkets and the ingredients on the label may not contain all the information they would have to know.

This article was both informative and very easy to understand. Author Amy Maxman did an amazing job stating facts about the product and giving background information in order to attract her reader. By doing so, Amy was able to make the article more reliable and less biased in order to give the reader the opportunity to formulate their own opinions. However I believe that Amy lacked quotes from the actual scientists and the business representatives and therefore without this information the article became less scientific. I believe with the addition of more quotes and the addition of other experiments and possible negatives of consuming such products would have had a larger impact on the reader and overall would have shown the importance of checking the labels of every product.

Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea

Abbey Thomas

Mr. Ippolito

AP Biology / Current Event

20 April 2018

Zimmer, Carl. “Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2018,

For this current event, I reviewed Carl Zimmer’s article on recent human evolution entitled, “Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea”. There had been previous adaptations that scientists had already known of, for example, people from high elevation have adapted to living at high altitudes and cattle herders in East Africa have a mutation that allows them to digest milk better. The uncovering of mutations that help humans adapt to the oceans was unexpected, and it was first reported in the journal Cell. There is a group in Southern Asia, known as the Bajau, who have adapted to become better divers. The Bajau culture is centered around the ocean, as that is their primary source of food and their houses are built over the ocean as well. The genetic changes have allowed them to swim 200 feet underwater with only wooden goggles. Dr. Ilado, from the University of Copenhagen, says that “It seemed like the perfect opportunity for natural selection to act on a population,”. The population can survive 200 feet underwater because they have a “diving reflex” that slows the heart rate and causes vasoconstriction. All mammals having a diving reflex, but the Bajaus’ is very strong. The mutation has also caused their spleens to be 50% larger than land dwellers, and research with seals shows that the larger the spleen, the deeper they can swim, as it acts like a scuba tank.

The natural selection occurring in Southern Asia is one of the only modern examples of human evolution, so therefore scientists are excited to begin to research new questions that appear from the case of the Bajau. One of the questions that scientists will be studying was how quickly these changes happened. History shows that divers only begin going to great depths in the 1600s to capture sea cucumbers to sell, but some scientists hypothesize that the evolutionary change began at the end of the Ice Age when sea levels in the region started to rise. Answers to either of these questions would help us understand the rate of human evolution.

One of the strengths of this article was it included information of the two different genes that could be the cause of the increased diving ability and went into detail about what research had been done to prove that these genes could be the ones mutated. One aspect of the article that could have been better would be to include some of the future studies about the Bajau would be done. The addition of this information would have helped the reader understand the significance of this discovery. Overall, Zimmer wrote an interesting article that highlighted how species are constantly evolving and adapting.

Why Exercise Alone May Not Be the Key to Weight Loss

Kunzang Namgyal

Mr.Ippolito

AP Biology- EF even

12 April 2018

Reynolds, Gretchen. “Why Exercise Alone May Not Be the Key to Weight Loss.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/well/move/why-exercise-alone-may-not-be-the-key-to-weight-loss.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront.

This week I decided to review the NY times article “Why Exercise Alone May Not Be the Key to Weight Loss,” written by Gretchen Reynolds. Reynolds documented a new study published by the American Diabetes Association that showed evidence that exercise could not be the key to weight loss many imagine it to be. In most studies done on weight loss “the participants lost far less weight than would have been expected, mathematically, given how many additional calories they were burning with their workouts.” This study, led by Daniel Lark, a research fellow in molecular physiology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, supports a theory that changes in daily activity after beginning exercise could be the reason for this discrepancy. The researchers involved in this study used infrared light beams to track mice’s daily movement before and after they began exercising. The researchers first obtained control data by recording “baseline data about each mouse’s metabolism and nature peripatetic-ness” on four young, healthy, normal-weight male mice let loose in cages with running wheels. Many of the mice began running on the wheels for multiple hours each day, causing a spike in their daily energy expenditure. Surprisingly, they did not change their eating habits but instead changed the way in which they moved. “They stopped engaging in the kind of lengthy meanders that had been common before they began to run,” meaning that the mice became more sedentary during other parts of their day. Lark stated that “these changes in how they spent their time neatly managed to almost counteract the extra calorie costs from running.” Although the mice still showed a slight caloric deficit, this deficit could have been about 45 percent greater if they had maintained their daily behavior from before they began exercising.

This article is relevant to anyone who is attempting to lose weight for a multitude of reasons, including personal happiness, health issues, and personal wellbeing. Although this study has only been performed on mice, it still can serve as a guide to help people lose weight more efficiently by reminding anyone hoping to lose weight by exercising that “we [must] watch what we eat and try not to move less while we work out more.” People trying to lose weight must not only exercise and diet, but also must monitor their daily activity to ensure that they are still expending the same amount of energy daily that they previously would have in addition to their exercise.

Overall, this article was well-written and factual. Reynolds gave excellent background on the topic of weight-loss issues by highlighting previous studies, “In recent years, study after study examining exercise and weight loss among people and animals has concluded that, by itself, exercise is not an effective way to drop pounds.” By mentioning the conclusion found by these studies, Reynold seamlessly introduces the new study done at Vanderbilt that finds the reason for the seemingly ineffectiveness of exercise for weight loss. I do wish that Reynolds had  gone into further detail on how this study could affect human weight loss plans, as she only briefly mentioned the implications this study could hold for humans.

TB Treatment May Leave Some Patients Contagious

Ellie Parson

Mr.Ippolito

AP Biology

April 11 2018

Citations:

Baumgaertner, Emily. “TB Treatment May Leave Some Patients Contagious.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/health/tuberculosis-treatment-hiv.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront.

Comment:

Tuberculosis, or TB, is a disease that is caused by a bacteria. It affects the lungs and causes some to cough up blood, lose weight, and have pain in their chest. New York Times author Emily Baumgaertner focuses on a possible treatment for TB in her article “TB Treatment May Leave Some Patients Contagious.” In her article, Baumgaertner discusses the issue of TB patients who also have H.I.V., and in turn hardly respond to TB medications at their current dosages. The bacterial disease kills “over 1.5 million lives per year,” and although there is treatment, it can last more than 6 months (Baumgaertner, 1). For close to 50 years, the two most common drugs used against TB are isoniazid and rifampicin, and both have been administered in a small dosage. However, scientists whose studies were published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal found that a higher dosage “may kill the deadly mycobacteria faster, curbing transmission” (Baumgaertner, 1). Some scientists, such as Dr. Melvin Spigelman,  can understand why such a dosage change is required for some people to recover faster, and noted that the cost of the drug was what determined its average dosage amounts- not science. The Swiss and Ugandan scientists responsible for the new research decided to center their experiment mostly on people who have both TB and H.I.V., which can decrease the quantity of medication absorbed by the body and the bloodstream. In their experiment, sick patients were given the regular dosage of TB treatment drugs, but to scientists dismay the concentrations in their blood were completely different- “84 percent of the participants had substandard levels of isoniazid, and 78 percent fell below targets for rifampicin”(Baumgaertner, 1). Those who suffered these effects carried TB with them for longer, spreading it around through contact. W.H.O. is an organization whose goal is to eliminate TB deaths from the human population, but their dreams cannot be reached without proper treatment for people with H.I.V. Dr. Karin Weyer, an expert of TB in the organization, claimed that this study was one small part of the larger studies that need to be done in order to eradicate TB. In addition to this research, drug companies must begin trying to develop their TB medications to match every single patient who has TB.

In terms of how this relates to society, the fact that TB still exists is perplexing. The disease could be eradicated if proper medications were administered all over the world, and if such as simple thing such as portion sizes of those medications were adjusted for certain people with other illnesses. 1.5 million lives per year out of societies and families takes a toll on not only their loved ones, but on how the world functions. In societies like Bronxville where TB is not an apparent issue, people should still be concerned and willing to participate any way they can in the movement to fully end TB. This disease is completely preventable is enough research and effort can be devoted to the cause, and given that researchers have enough money, it may no longer be a problem for countries like Uganda where people still suffer from TB. Given that TB is caused by a bacteria and is not a type of genetic mutation, it can be easily cured. Although the process of treatment may be tolling on patients, it is not incurable- the only thing standing in the way of curing people with TB is the amount of research done. Just because TB epidemics are in countries we have not seen, or the sufferers of TB are commonly in poorer countries, it does not mean we can forget about them.

Baumgaertner had both strengths and weaknesses in her article. In her article, she successfully provided both qualitative and quantitative evidence found by the research. For example, TB takes over 1.5 million lives, and medications to prevent TB are not fully absorbed through the bloodstream as a result of H.I.V. This information helps readers not only feel involved and help them gain a better understanding of the experiment, but it also allows shows that the research is supported by evidence and is therefore valid. Another strength is the incorporation of different scientists opinions on the findings, which added dimension to the article. Some areas of improvement include the lack of information about where TB is an issue. It is not mentioned where TB is most prominent in the world, and therefore students may not understand why not much research has been done it the disease. A solution would be to include a sentence explaining that TB is most common in poorer countries and therefore wealthy countries do not feel as compelled to find a better cure for the disease as it does not affect them. Another issue can be found in the fact that a large portion of the article consisted of quotes instead of original writing. A solution to this would be to write out explanations of the quotes instead of simply stating them.

Toxins: The Hidden Dangers of Makeup, Shampoo and Cosmetics

Kirsten Ircha           4/11/18
AP Biology E/F Even      Current Event #21

Citation:

Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Toxins: The Hidden Dangers of Makeup, Shampoo and Cosmetics.” Time,

Time, 26 June 2017, time.com/4832688/makeup-shampoo-toxic/.

In the current day and age individuals strive to look their best through the use of cosmetics, such as hair gel, lipstick, nail polish, shimmer, lip gloss, mascara, eye shadow, face powder, hair spray, eyeliner, glitter, face cream, body lotion, and more. Through the article, “The Hidden Dangers of Makeup and Shampoo,” Alexandra Sifferlin explores how all of these products are in fact chemical concoctions that may cause harsh side effects. In many cases, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began receiving health-related complaints about cosmetic products, such as shampoo and makeup, over 10 years ago. However the main issue is that it is very difficult to remove such products from markets. This is because cosmetic companies are not required to receive approval of their products before they go to stores or regulate the safety or effectiveness of these products. In a recent report, Dr. Steve X, a resident physician in the department of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, found that in the past 12 years over 5,000 cases of health-related complaints were reported to the FDA concerning cosmetic products. As the article elaborates on this issue, “The new researched shows that between 2004 and 2016, an average of 396 events were reported per year, with an increase between 2015 to 2016. The three most commonly cited products were for hair care, skin care and tattoos.” His number, however, is not alarmingly large due to the fact that many cases go unreported and therefore, many unsafe products are left on the market. With these realities, the global cosmetic industry reaches around 265 billion dollars in revenue per year.  However, the FDA regulatory team only receives 13 million dollars to regulate these cosmetic issues. This allows consumer to continue purchasing dangerous cosmetics.

This article is extremely relevant to society as almost every person utilizes cosmetics in some way or another. However, what people do not understand is that these products could be debilitating to your health and well-being. Through these efforts it becomes clear that individuals must learn what is in their product and be willing to report any harsh side effects to the FDA in order to sprout change. Furthermore,  people and families should attempt to use more natural based products in order to prevent any harsh chemicals that could coincide with large corporations. In addition, when trying new products, people must recognize and regulate any effect they are experiencing from these products and discontinue use if irritation or other health-related issues occur. From this information, society will learn to be more careful with the products that they allow into their routines.

The article is written extremely well. However, one of my main concern is that only one scientist was consistently quoted throughout the article. Although the scientist is well known, I feel the work would have seemed much more legitimate if multiple scientists with multiple viewpoints were spoken about. In the future, this issue can be improved upon by using the research of multiple scientists, or quoting additional dermatologists or doctors. The author could also make sure to utilize more research based data found from additional sources in order to further support her claims.The best aspect of this piece is the connection the author makes between society and large businesses. By mentioning these connections individuals are able to see how their own person lives can connect to a larger issue. This makes the reader more engaged and less passive. Furthermore, I enjoyed the topic chosen for the article as the issue is extremely interesting and relevant to society. Although the article did have its weaknesses, I feel that the piece is passionate and extraordinary informational.