Genetically Modified Immune cells?

Think about this. A man with a very specific type of leukemia that kills 60% of the adults who get it gets chemotherapy and it doesn't work. He goes through a more aggressive type of chemotherapy and it doesn't work. It's estimated that his bone marrow is 70% tumor. He goes through a new treatment and in 8 days the cancer is gone! GONE!!

This was an experimental treatment against a very specific type of leukemia, but it holds promise for many things in the future.

"...a type of immune cell called T cells are extracted from a patient, genetically modified, and then reinfused back. In this case, the T cells were engineered to express a receptor for a protein on other immune cells, known as B cells, found in both healthy and cancerous tissue."

They used a virus to transfer the B cell marker protein (name tag) so that they T cells would attack and kill the B cells. It is using our own immune system to fight the cancer. This very well could be the wave of the future.

"Four of the five patients subsequently received additional therapy in the form of a bone marrow transplant, the standard of care for those patients who successfully achieve complete cancer remissions after treatment for relapsed disease. To date, three of the four patients have remained in remission for between five and 24 months. One patient died from complications unrelated to the cancer therapy while in remission."

Monoculture CORN

This essay reprinted from Ensia.com and linked to the Scientific American website identifies some of the positives and negatives of the midwest U.S. having the monoculture of corn. We recently had a visitor from the UN help us learn about biodiversity and will soon begin a unit on Ecology.

Use that information and comment on what you think about their opinion (some of which I share and some of which I don't).

Dengue Fever - a little bit of everything!

This video clip has a little bit of everything we have covered thus far this year. It's about how dengue fever enters the cell and creates new copies of itself.

Comment upon something you learned in class this year that was covered in the video.