In current society, cancer is one of the most fatal and prevalent diseases to exist. However, new research being conducted on telomeres and telomerase provides insight on not only the aging process and mortality of cells, but also on how the idea of cell death connects to cancer cells. By gaining knowledge on the supposed immortality of cancer cells, researchers are acquiring a higher understanding of the subject, and attempting to work on alternate techniques to provide treatment for the illness
that take place in the body. For example, an enzyme can be the root to cancer cells. Researching about these highly chemically reactant enzymes has led to the discovery of a fairly new enzyme called Telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme that is associated with the addition of nucleotides to telomerase (Yu-Sheng Cong). This enzyme is highly known for its activity with human cells, but most importantly,
divides. This can cause a malfunction or cancer. An enzyme named telomerase adds bases to the ends of Telomeres. In young cells, telomerase keeps Telomeres from wearing down too much. But as cells divide repeatedly, there is not enough telomerase, so the Telomeres grow shorter and the cells age. Telomerase remains active in sperm and eggs, which are passed from one generation to the next. If reproductive cells did not have telomerase to maintain the length of their Telomeres, any organism with such
(2002). The significance of telomerase activation and cellular immortalization in human cancer. Mutagenesis, 17(6), 539-550. Oeseburg, H., de Boer, R.,A., van Gilst, W.,H., & van, d. H. (2010). Telomere biology in healthy aging and disease. Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology, 459(2), 259-68. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00424-009-0728-1 Tümpel, S., & Rudolph, K. (2012). The role of telomere shortening in somatic stem cells and tissue aging: lessons from telomerase model systems. Annals
telomeres can we in turn lengthen our lifespan” but also wonders “ If we do so will it increase our risk for cancer or other disorders”. In the lab they have been successful in keeping cells alive far longer than their normal limit with the use of telomerase and surprisingly they did not become cancerous. This opens many doors for massive cell transplantation, like producing muscle cells for someone with muscular dystrophy or insulin producing cells for someone with diabetes. Cawthon research also revealed
KoAP Biology Summer Assignment: Survival of the Sickest Questions 1. Life is more abundant in the North Atlantic than in the Pacific because the ocean area of the North Atlantic is directly in the path of iron-rich dust from the Sahara Desert, which leads to the development of bigger communities of phytoplankton, and in turn plankton, and so on. This fact is related to global warming because someone thought of an idea to fight global warming by putting huge amounts of iron solution into the ocean
Ethics for the Fountain of Youth David J. Hepworth Brigham Young University Ethics for the Fountain of Youth Within a hundred years, unless we make some major research breakthroughs, you are going to die. Before then, you will get to watch many of the friends and family you love go through the process of decay, infirmity, and death. Witnessing this process over and over, we have accepted it as nature's way, but it is horrible, tragic, and heartbreaking. We are currently governed by the
mediates telomerase recruitment and processivity. Nature, 492: 285-289 (2012). 5. Schwartz, J.C., Ebmeier, C.C., Podell, E.R., Heimiller, J., Taatjes, D.J., Cech, T.R. FUS binds the CTD of RNA polymerase II and regulates its phosphorylation at Ser2. Genes Dev. 26: 2690-95 (2012). Works Cited http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/101017/Thomas-Robert-Cech http://chem.colorado.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247&Itemid=185 http://www.hhmi.org/research/telomerase-and-chromosome-ends
Human beings age and they have since the beginning of time, but it remains an unsolved mystery. This enigma has remained in the dark until the recent innovations technologies have shed some light on this elusive topic; cells are the key to figuring out why humans age. Aging seems to be a relatively simple process, but the more it is studied, it is evident that it is rather complex. There are a myriad of factors that contribute to aging, but none of them can single handedly answer the question of
Rabka Gajiani Dr. Ataman Henrietta Lacks: The Legacy Lives On Abstract: Henrietta Lacks was born in Virginia on August 1, 1920. In 1941 she married her first cousin David Lacks. A mother of five, she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on January 29, 1951, because she felt a knot in her stomach. Her family and her assumed she was pregnant, which was true, but after giving birth to her son she started to bleed abnormally. She was then referred to Johns Hopkins hospital where she
My passion for research began during the senior year of college when I was awarded the Junior Research Fellowship (~20 out of 500 applicants) to train in Dr. Sriram’s laboratory at the National Center For Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India. During my summer internship, I trained in basic molecular and cell biology techniques to investigate the function of signaling pathways in mitochondrial dynamics. Apart from technical skills, I was exposed to seminars from top scientists in the world, which
which reduced proliferative potential in response to UV exposure leading to premature skin aging and senescence [7]. A rejuvenating enzyme telomerase build telomere DNA and telomere DNA protect chromosome. Without telomerase present, the chromosome is shortened each time cell divides. Finally telomerase maintain telomere at the end of DNA thread. Telomerase is an enzyme consists of proteins and RNA sequence as a template for synthesizing telomere DNA. Telomeres shorten with each cell division and
Biological immortality There are several methods of achieving immortality, each with its own problems. The first of this methods is to reverse or stop aging, as this is logically one of the main causes of death. In scientific terms this is called biological immortality. A cell or organism that does not age, or stops to age at some point, is biological immortal. Though this seems impossible there are in fact some species which naturally have this ability. An example of this is the Turritopsis nutricula
“It is death that gives urgency to life. It drives us to discovery, to cross oceans and reach into the emptiness of space” says the Herald Tribune columnist Rich Brooks (Thompson). The thought of being immortal is extremely alluring. To live in an ageless body, have all the time in the world to basically do whatever is something that every person has thought of. Immortality has always been a myth, but with technology continuing to advance everyday with alarming speed, it might soon be possible. Scientist
Genetic engineering, the process of using genetic information from the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of cells to fix or improve genetic defects or maladies, has been developing for over twenty years. When Joseph Vacanti, a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital, and Robert Langer, a chemical engineering professor at MIT, first met as researchers in the 1970’s, they had little knowledge of the movement they would help found. After they discovered a method of growing live tissue in the 1980’s, a new
continue to multiply in culture, and they still continue to grow up to this day. Scientists remain stumped why the HeLa cells survived whereas others didn't. It has been proposed that the immortality of her cells is due to the enzyme telomerase (Reveron, 2011). Telomerase pre... ... middle of paper ... ...m these advancements that are from human body parts. Instead, it is imperative to honor and preserve those who have made these interventions possible Works Cited Keiger, D. (2010,
within the body; DNA. Our DNA is partly composed of Telomeres. These are the “caps” at the end of DNA strands. These telomeres are responsible for how our cells age as well as markers for psychological stress. Telomeres contain an enzyme called Telomerase that prevents the shortening of the telomeres. (Dunlop, 2015) In a 2012 study, participants were asked to meditate using a method called Kriya Kirtan for 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks. This method consists of repeating specific sounds while touching
Introduction The Hallmarks of Cancer written by Doughlas Hanahan and Robert A. Weinberg proposed the underlying principles and the essential characteristics of the development of human tumors. This article distilled all the existing research to depict the fundamental characteristics of cancer. Hanahan and Weinberge proposed six hallmarks shared among all cancers mentioned in this article includes supporting proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressor, resisting cell death, enabling replicative
In the twenty three chromosomes that make up the human genome, there are over one billion three letter “words” of DNA which make us who we are. The book Genome by Matt Ridley explains each pair of chromosomes in the human body, and how it affects our lives. The story is divided into twenty three chapters, each representing a pair of chromosomes in the human body. The story opens with an explanation of the terms used in the book and a comparison of how DNA and RNA and different. In chapters two
book goes into other fields of biology, including medicine and biotechnology. The book is very educational. I learned about the homeobox genes, which guide the development of the entire human body from a single cell. I learned that the gene for telomerase is the focus for a discussion of aging and immortality. I also learned that the ethnic differences in the frequency of a particular breast cancer gene are used to describe the relationships among population genetics, prehistoric migrations, and