Medicine
MicroRNA as an identifying biomarker for cancer
By Rohit Patil, George Washington University Ulysses S. Grant once explained that the “art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” Cancer is a war, on its own. The patients have to [...]
Metabolic Diseases and Poverty: The Bane of the Western Diet
The geographical spread of diabetes and obesity occurs in many of the areas stricken by poverty. The pertinent question is then, does the impoverished environment cause or at least aid the development of obesity and diabetes, or is this correlation merely coincidental? Type 2 diabetes affects 7.8% of the United States population, which seems small. [...]
Seasonal Allergies: Severity in Urban Areas
There are certain images that we typically associate with seasonal allergies, the most common being sneezing and runny noses due to airborne pollen. These scenarios are commonly thought to occur in places far from the city or suburban areas, that is, places where there is a large amount of vegetation. While rural areas are commonly [...]
Sheep, Goats and Pigs! Oh My: Milking Transgenic Animals for Medicine
The use of transgenic animals in the production of pharmaceuticals has opened an innovative field of study bringing medicine to the barnyard. A transgenic animal is modified to contain genetic information from another organism, and animals have been designed to produce pharmaceutical human proteins. While the prospects are promising, the future use of transgenic animals [...]
Gene Doping and its Dangerous Edge
Every two years, the best athletes in the world gather to compete in the modern Olympic Games. Against a backdrop of sand or snow, these seemingly superhuman competitors push their bodies to perform feats that would be impossible for the average person. Yet in the past few decades, concerns have mounted over whether some participants [...]
Lifeomics: Future Healthcare Model via Emergent Interface, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality
Recent developments in personalized genomics and ubiquitous computing have created new opportunities in the current healthcare system. Especially with an increasing number of elders and patients in constant needs, a new breed of wellness models is necessary. We believe that the full potential of biomedical and computational advances can be achieved through an integrative approach, combining diverse solutions from genome-wide association studies, continuous health monitoring, large-scale statistical analysis, embodied interface, and intuitive virtual reality. Lifeomics is a proof of concept to lay a concrete foundation for an immediate development of health monitoring hardware and graphic user interface. In this report, we present how different concepts are augmented together to create a cohesive platform.
The Case for Neurodiversity
Is Asperger’s Syndrome really a disorder or is it simply another human variation?
…With a Grain of Salt
“Whoever first said, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ likely wasn’t thinking of salt.”[i] However, in a current pilot program through the World Health Organization, salt is just that, a preventative measure against lymphatic filariasis (LF), a parasitic disease of tropical and subtropical areas commonly known as elephantiasis, which causes disfigurement [...]
What is Consciousness? “Medical Miracle” Provides More Questions than Answers
Avid fans of medical thrillers may remember the 2007 film Awake starring Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba. In the movie, Christensen’s character, Clay, suffers “anesthetic awareness” and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery. As if the distress were not enough, Clay remains locked in his own body on the operating table [...]
TTH Online Podcast – Episode 002: Popular Perceptions of Genetics
Guests: Amanda Waddell and Ellen Dupont As our knowledge of the human genome and our ability to intervene with it increase, the fields of genetics and genomics are becoming ever more important. ASU students Amanda Waddell and Ellen Dupont join host David Edwards to discuss the ethics of genetic engineering and issues surrounding media coverage [...]
TTH Online Podcast – Episode 001: Transhumanism and Sustainability
Guest: Brad Allenby How do we define being human? What are the implications of the increasingly sophisticated technologies that are “beginning to make the human a design space”? Drawing on his diverse and transdisciplinary experience, ASU professor Brad Allenby joins host David Edwards to explore the ethical, legal, and environmental implications of an increasingly technological [...]
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