Category Archives: Biological sciences

Revolutionary micro-rocket medicine to stop bleeding

Posted on April 9, 2014 by vkwan | Leave a comment

Imagine medicine that can actively move. Medicine that are like fighter-jets transporting soldiers to a disaster zone. Clearly, this way of thinking challenges the traditional view of medicine where drugs are designed to absorb into the blood stream and flow with the direction of blood to reach sites all over the body. However, Dr. Christian Kastrup and his research team at the University of British Columbia are boldly challenging this traditional view. In collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical school, these researchers have developed a revolutionary micro-particle system that actively moves to sites of injury in the body. The system is a cream that can be applied on the surface of the skin. The hope is that these systems can be used to transport medicine deep inside wounds that are bleeding uncontrollably.

Medicine that can self-propel may be the next big breakthrough in pharmacological research. Image courtesy of Dr. Christian Kastrup

This new technology has exciting implications for saving lives in developing countries. In Africa, 1 in 10 mothers will die from severe bleeding during childbirth. In modern cities, this technology could reduce bleeding after a traumatic injury, buying the victim more time before reaching the hospital and having access to doctors and surgeons. In Canada alone, 15,000 people die each year from such traumatic injuries. Moreover, this technology could make life more convenient by substituting endless rolls of bandages and dressing with a thin film of cream coated on top of a simple band-aid. The next time you get your wisdom teeth pulled out by the dentist, you may not need to suck on uncomfortable pads of cotton! Rather, a cotton liner swabbed with cream may suffice to control the bleeding.

Layer upon layers of bandages may be a thing of the past! Image via Wikipedia

The system developed by Dr. Kastrup and colleagues works by immediately reacting with blood to fizz and foam up. To help you visualize this, the way it works is similar to Vitamin C tablets bought from pharmacies. When you drop the tablet into water, it bubbles and creates foaming (see youtube video below). This foaming reaction generates force which can be used to move medicine against outward flowing blood in situations where severe bleeding occurs.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKiF21abME[/youtube]

This research by Dr. Kastrup is the first to demonstrate effectiveness in reducing bleeding in living organisms. In two mice models, the micro-particle systems were shown to significant reduce the amount of bleeding. While these results are promising, further study will be needed to investigate proper dosages in humans and how to develop more selectivity in the pathway to which the micro-particle systems move. The latter is an important point as blood clotting in unintended regions may led to serious adverse effects (such as stroke).

We had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Kastrup and graduate student James Baylis to learn more about this exciting line of research. Please see below for our podcast and video.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s89poehvmw&feature=youtu.be

Podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXf0g_KFmVk

Written by: Group 2 (Vivian Kwan, Baltej Sekhon, William Yang)

Hey, Nice Smile

Posted on March 24, 2014 by jshih29 | Leave a comment

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfLSjobM9bg[/youtube]

A scene from the movie Mean Girls provides some interesting insight on the way we interact with each other. With a smile, Regina George compliments a fellow classmate and brightens her day. Seconds later, she rolls her eyes and says, “That is the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen.” How was she able to pull off her lie so convincingly?

Through her smile.

Smiling has a long evolution history and is considered an inborn trait, meaning that we’ve developed the ability to smile from the time we were born. There are many reasons we smile and an important one is that it fosters communication between people. Moreover, we tend to smile when we are talking to people because we don’t want to give off the impression that we are unlikeable and hostile. Even though we know it’s impossible to like everyone and for everyone to like us, we generally still try to appear friendly and polite, if not neutral, to avoid getting into any unnecessary confrontations.

Back in the 1800s, French physician Duchenne de Boulogne identified two distinct types of smiles. The first type of smile, called a Duchenne smile, refers to a smile linked to genuine positive emotion and involves contraction of the muscles around the eyes and the muscles that raise the corners of the lips. The other, the Pan Am smile, is a fake smile that involves contraction of only the muscles around the corner of the lips. Sounds relatively straightforward, right?

(Copyright Paul Ekman 2003, “Emotions Revealed,” Owl Books, 2007.)

Current research using neuroimaging techniques have indicated otherwise. A study by Calvo and colleagues (2013) measured the neuronal activity of participants using electroencephalograms (EEG) as they judged whether or not an assortment of faces were genuinely happy. The researchers found that there were no differences in brain activity upon seeing happy faces compared to seeing faces that combined a smile with fearful or neutral eyes. In other words, the brain was unable to differentiate genuine smiles from fake smiles.

In a different study, researchers tracked the eye movements of participants as they viewed images of faces with genuine and fake smiles and found that the majority of viewers fixated their gazes the earliest on the smiling mouth first, regardless of the type of eyes. Participants were also more likely to judge faces with fake smiles as genuine when they fixated on the smiling mouth first before looking at the eyes. The results suggested that the primary fixation on the mouth causes viewers to misinterpret the true emotion behind a face.

So, in conclusion, it is quite difficult to detect the sincerity behind a smiling face. This is how Regina George was able to deceive the poor girl. On the bright side, this means that no one really knows our real thoughts, either.

This really casts a new light on the saying, “Smile at your enemies, it confuses them”, doesn’t it?

By Joanne Shih

Elepants Have Learnt to “Understand” Human

Posted on March 17, 2014 by csm811 | 2 comments

Whether we realize it, African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are listening to us. It is recently found that African elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child just by listening to the sound of a human voice. This is a very beneficial skill for the elephants that are often threatened by humans because they can protect themselves from human actions.

African elephants (Loxodonta africana)

A recently published study in PNAs (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) last month by Drs. Karen McCombs and Graeme Shannon from University of Sussex provides evidence that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) can recognize human voices. By listening to our voices, elepants can determine our relative age and gender, tell different human languages apart and determine whether the people approaching them are a threat.

Their study was conducted in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, and Elepants there are killed periodically by Maasi pastoralists (a semi-nomadic group that sometimes kill elephants). McComb and her colleagues wondered if the elephants are able to tell the voice of the Maasai men apart from Kamba people (crop farmers who rarely have violent contact with elephants). The researchers recorded voices of both Maasai and Kamba speaking in their native language “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming.” The researchers then played back the voice recordings to 47 elephant groups while observing the animals’ reactions. McComb and her colleagues discovered that Massai voices caused the elephants to smell the air or huddle together twice as tightly than when they heard the Kamba voices.

Image of Maasai Men

Image of Kamba People

The elephants not only are able to tell the diffenrent ethnic groups apart, they are also able to recognize the gender and relative age of the voices. McComb found that elephants were less likely to run away when they heard Massai women or boys speaking as compared to Massai men. And this is because the Massai men is a much more serious threat for the elephants compared to Massai women or boys. Their research shows that elephants and other animals might be studying us more carefully than we are studying them as they have learnt to “understand” human in order to protect themselves from danger.

“Humans are undoubtedly the most dangerous and versatile predators the elephants are faced with these days,” said Prof McComb, and their research showed that elephants were “trying to adapt to human threats” by recognizing human languages.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKWvlsRJVRI[/youtube]

Reference:

McComb K, Shannon G, Sayialel KN, Moss C. Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1321543111

By Simeng Alexandra Cai

2 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news, Uncategorized

Tagged African elephants, elephants, human voices, Kamba people, Maasi pastoralists

Hangover Preventing Beer

Posted on March 17, 2014 by baltejs | 5 comments

According to a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, next time you’re thirsty you may be asking for a beer instead of a glass of water. Researchers at Griffith University in Australia have come up with a method to brew beer that hydrates you.

A couple of friends relaxing with a beer. (via Google)

Researchers took two different brands of beer, reduced their alcohol content and added electrolytes them. Electrolytes are ingredients that you would typically find in hydrating drinks like Gatorade. The researchers’ primary goal was to determine if by adding electrolytes, like sodium, to beer would your body be able to compensate for lost fluids that result from drinking. And that’s exactly what they found. By changing the composition of the beer, you can be hydrated as you drink.

A supermarket isle of Gatorade. (via Google)

Researchers conducted the study by having volunteers drink beer after vigorous exercise. They found that the altered light beer was 33% more effective at hydrating drinkers than the regular strength beer. This extra bit of hydration during drinking could help prevent those pesky hangovers, which are primarily caused by dehydration.

This research may sound like it’s too good to be true, but it is true. The best part of all this is that the extra ingredients and the reduced alcohol content have no effect on the taste of the beer. So you can enjoy your favourite beer and become refreshed, without missing out on the taste.

A group of friends enjoying some beer. (via Google)

The research was inspired by the forward thinking of the lead researcher Associate Professor Ben Desbrow who stated: “So, if you’re going to live in the real world, you can either spend your time telling people what they shouldn’t do, or you can work on ways of reducing the danger of some of these socialized activities.”

Consumers unfortunately will have to wait sometime before this magical, hangover prevent beer hits the shelves.

Baltej Sekhon

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–SbTiabOAc[/youtube]

5 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Public engagement, Science in the news, Uncategorized

Tagged Alcohol, Beer, Electrolytes, Gatorade, Hangover, Hydration, Relax, Summer

Dropping your food – how well does the five-second food rule work?

Posted on March 10, 2014 by tienvu | 5 comments

With summer vacation approaching, you can’t help but to indulge in those ice cream cones, barbecued chicken wings and other summer’s unique food items. However, summer also means that you are more likely to apply the five-second rule to your dropped food that falls upon a dried up cement ground on a hot summers day. During other seasons of the year, who would even think about picking up dropped food off a wet ground or mud surface? This leaves us two critical question: 1) does the five-second food rule actually work and 2) if so, how well does this rule work when applied?

Admittedly I have used the five-second rule numerous times before and given that the rule did not result in a stomach flu most of the time, I would say that it works fairly well. Recent findings from a research carried out at Aston University suggest that the myth about the five-second rule – it is fine to eat food that dropped to the floor for five seconds or less – can be supported by scientific basis. The results indicated that by applying the five-second rule: foods picked up a few seconds after being dropped to the floor will contain less bacteria that if it is left there for longer time. Here, time is a vital factor that determines the amount of bacteria transferred from a floor surface onto a piece of food item. The infection risk carried by dropped food also depends on the type surface (wet vs. dry) and the type of bacteria presented on the surface at the time.

Image of dropped ice cream by Caro Wallis via Flickr

To decide on how well the five-second food rule actually work, we have to look at the number of microbes on our dropped ice cream after five seconds compared to one or three seconds. Jorge Parada, a medical director at Loyola University Health System said that “a dropped item is immediately contaminated and can’t be sanitized”. After five seconds, the dropped food may only picks up 1,000 bacteria but it may also pick up 10,000 bacteria – which is typically enough needed to get most people sick – depending on the situation. Therefore, infection risk really comes down to the type of food being dropped and the surface that it lands on. For example, you may apply the five-second rule to a cement ground but you probably do not want to use it if the food dropped in a toilet.

Below is a video by Vsauce, explaining the effectiveness of using the five-second rule. The video emphasized that time is the major factor.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYXdsOEWBj0[/youtube]

Ultimately, the infection level depends on the person and his/her immune system. If a person have a strong immune system then the five-second rule may never fail them. But if you have a weak system then you may want to think twice about picking up dropped food – even if it’s just for one second. I guess the best advice is that: when in doubt, do not pick up the food.

-Blog post by Tien Vu

5 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Public engagement, Science communication, Science in the news, Uncategorized

Tagged dropped, five-seconds, food, food rule, infection, microbes

How does your friend’s friend’s friend affect you?

Posted on March 9, 2014 by jasonl | 5 comments

Were obese people influenced by people they have never met? In addition to physical health, were individuals’ emotional health affected by people they never met? Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler addressed these questions in a fascinating study about how people’s social network influenced their weight, happiness, smoking tendencies, and other aspects of their lives (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkmsjFisW_A).

Social networks influence people’s tendency to smoke. Photograph Will Lion by via Flickr Commons.

The researchers first addressed the issue of obesity by observing people’s social networks and noticed clusters of obese people and clusters of non-obese individuals. They discovered that although people may not know their friend’s friends, these secondary friends affected the people’s level of obesity. If these secondary friends became obese, then the original people were more likely to become obese, too. However, it was not recommended that someone forfeits their friendship with an obese friend. In fact, the researchers noted that people who abandoned an obese friend were more likely to become obese than those who maintained their friendship. This finding emphasized how paramount friendship was in people’s lives.

Drs. Christakis and Fowler proposed a theory called ‘Three Degrees of Influence’, (a friend or relative is one degree of separation, a friend’s friend is two degrees of separation, and a friend’s friend’s friend is three degrees of separation). They suggested how individuals up to three degrees in separation influenced other people (CALIT). In addition, there was a greater impact when people were close to their friend or relative. Neighbours and acquaintances who were not as close did not have as great an effect.

The social scientists also investigated if emotions and other behaviours are connected to social networks in a similar way. Similar to physical health, they found that a close relationship three degrees apart affected our emotions, such as happiness. In addition, people’s choice of whether to vote and who they voted for were also influenced by social networks. Drs. Christakis and Fowler coauthored ‘The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives’ and an excerpt is available at http://connectedthebook.com/pdf/excerpt.pdf.

Blog post by Jason Leung

5 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Public engagement

Tagged health, psychology, social health, social networks, well-being

Using Neuroimaging to Understand the Impact of Seizures on Brain Development

Posted on March 3, 2014 by vkwan | 3 comments

One of the most fulfilling experiences in my undergraduate career thus far is my involvement in research at BC Children’s Hospital with neurologist Dr. Vann Chau. We are looking at how seizures affect brain maturation in children who have congenital heart disease (CHD). This is when a baby is born with abnormalities in their heart structure or function, which leads to problems with blood circulation. One example is “atrial septal defect” (see image below)

Atrial septal defect is where the septum separating the right from the left atria is missing (Image via Wikipedia)

After open-heart surgery, 15% of infants will have seizures— the most common neurological complication. Previous research using animal models has found that seizures can induce lasting brain injuries (Holmes, 2002). However, it is not known whether this is true in human newborns.

Cardiac surgery operating room at BC Children’s Hospital (With permission from Dr. Kenneth Poskitt)

Seizures are treated using anti-epileptic drugs which decreases excitation in the brain. However, there is a high risk for adverse effects when treating a newborn with anti-epileptic drugs. Thus it is not clear to doctors just how aggressive they should be with seizure treatment since it is unknown how seizures affect brain development in the first place.

This is where our study comes in. We are examining whether cases of CHD with seizures, compared to those without, is associated with disturbed brain development. If we do find that seizures are associated with alterations in brain development, then this would be compelling evidence that improved management of seizures may lead to better neurological outcomes.

So how exactly are we assessing brain development? We are using neuroimaging methods which I will write about for the remainder of this post!

(1) Standard Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI)
This method allows us to detect stroke and white matter (nerve fiber) injury by looking at differences in the alignment of protons in the brain. Below is an example of a stroke injury.

sMRI showing a stroke injury in the upper left region of the brain (With permission from Dr. Kenneth Poskitt)

(2) Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
This is a specialized application of MRI which uses properties of water diffusion to visualize neuronal tracts (bundles of nerve fibers) in the brain. Below is an example of a DTI image.

DTI of the human brain. To the left of this image is the frontal part of your brain. (Image via Wikipedia)

(3) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)
This method looks at differences in resonant frequencies to determine the concentrations of key metabolites in selected regions of the brain. Below is an example of a MRS spectra.

MRS spectra showing different peaks for each metabolite which appears at a known frequency (Image via Wikipedia)

Written by Vivian Kwan

3 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences

Tagged congenital heart disease, magnetic resonance imaging, neuroimaging, seizures, stroke

Taking a hit on HIV

Posted on February 24, 2014 by baltejs | 3 comments

A marijuana plant (via Google).

Recently cannabis, or more commonly known as marijuana, is being frequently debated on multiple talk shows in the United States with respect to legalization, but its medical aspects are being overlooked. Marijuana has been used in the past to treat chronic pain and weight loss, both symptoms associated with HIV. According to a study published in AIDS Research and Human Retrovirus, marijuana may be able to prevent the disease from spreading once the patient has been infected.

For 17 months, researchers at Louisiana State University were busy getting Rhesus monkeys high— well, maybe not exactly getting the monkeys high– but more like administering a fixed amount of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, twice a day into the monkeys. All this was done while adhering to the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. By including THC in the monkeys’ diet, researchers were hoping to discover how this chemical affects the spread of HIV in monkeys.

A Rhesus monkey. The monkey used in this study (via Google).

The monkeys used in the study were in the age range of four to six-years-old, and had to pass a physical and blood test before the study was conducted to confirm that they were not presenting a new variable to the study that could cause the results to be scientifically flawed.

After the 17 month period, the researchers found the damage to lymphatic tissue in the gut area to have decreased. This is significant, as gut-associated lymphatic tissue plays a key role in HIV replication and inflammation.

Dr. Patricia Molina, a lead researcher in the study, stated “These findings reveal novel mechanisms that may potentially contribute to cannabinoid-mediated disease modulation.” These finding can be applied to humans as the direct injection of THC in monkeys has similar effects to humans smoking marijuana.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdt5mZMzHzE[/youtube]

Baltej Sekhon

3 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Science in the news, Uncategorized

Tagged AIDS, cannabis, health, HIV, Marijuana, Monkey, THC

A Cup of Coffee for your Memory

Posted on February 10, 2014 by baltejs | 3 comments

If you’re one of those students who leaves their studying to the last day, you may want to purchase a coffee maker. A recently published article in Nature Neuroscience found that the consumption of caffeine can help you memorize better. Now, before you run to Tim Horton’s to order their largest cup of coffee, realize that you only need 200mg of caffeine in order for this to work, which is equivalent to about one cup of coffee. They found that if you ingest 200mg of caffeine after you have finished memorizing, you will be able to retain the information for longer.

A pile of homework left to the last minute by a college student. (via Google)

The researchers experimented with different dosages of caffeine to see which dosage would give the best results. The participants were also given 100mg and 300mg of caffeine, but 200mg was found to be the most effective.

A cup of coffee. (via Google)

The researchers selected 160 healthy coffee drinking rookies, between the ages of 18 and 30. Luckily, most of us students fall into this age range. The participants were randomly assigned to 200mg of caffeine pills or 200mg of a placebo pill. On day 1, participants were shown an image and were required to study that image. They were then given either a caffeine or a placebo pill. One day after taking the placebo or caffeine pill, the participants were shown the original image and an image that looked similar to it. Those who were given caffeine were better able to determine that the similar image was not the same as the original image.

A pile of coffee beans. (via Google)

However, there are limitations to caffeine. Researchers have not been able to link caffeine benefits to long-term memory retention. So the next step in the field of caffeine and our well-being, is learning the mechanism in which caffeine increases short-term memory. From there researchers hope to figure out if caffeine can be linked to long-term memory.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDniiohjGcY[/youtube]

Baltej Sekhon

3 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences, Issues in science, Public engagement, Science in the news, Uncategorized

Tagged Caffeine, Coffee, College, Cramming, Memorization, Memory, Mental Health

Methadone: A Transfer of Addiction and Dependency.

Posted on February 3, 2014 by guanqunzhao | 3 comments

Walking through the streets of East Hastings is a shocking scene. The sights of addiction and drug use is prevalent on any street corner or block. Recently posters have been put up on every street corner warning citizens of an increased concentration in a dosage of Methadone. This sparked an interest to investigate what this drug does and why does it matter.

Posters on street corners of East Hastings. Photo Credit: BC Harm Reduction Strategies and Services.

Methadone is a drug used for treatments of opioid addictions such as heroin and morphine. It works by blocking receptors in the brain that narcotics bind to therefore preventing them from binding and that “high” sensation lost. It should be noted that Methadone does not treat non-opioid addictions such as methamphetamine and alcohol addictions which are present around Downtown Eastside. Methadone is an effective drug in temporarily shifting a patients addiction away from more dangerous drugs and promotes time for rehabilitation.

Methadone in it’s pill form, also comes in liquid form. Photo Credit: WebMD.

Unfortunately, although Methadone is used clinically for treatment of addiction it does have its own side effects. A more important side effect after all the common side effects is its tendency of addiction. Methadone on its own is a very addictive drug that proves to be equally addictive as what it is trying to cure although it does not have as detrimental negative effects. Another problem with Methadone is that it is not a cure rather a substitute for opioid drugs, a person who stops having access to Methadone will potentially return back to the drugs that they were trying to overcome.

The news about a new form of Methadone is a drug called Methadose, which in fact is 10 times stronger than the previous opioid prevention drug. This causes increase risk of overdose in the drug using community and puts a great strain on users.

So the big question is, is Methadone an appropriate solution to opioid addiction. Although Methadone is not a fix to the problem, it is a solution for patients to be able to have a functional life. With daily dosage of Methadone, it acts as the same dependency as any opioid drug but without life threatening negative effects.

However, this should not be the complete solution, fixing the problem on East Hastings requires institutional assistance. Methadone is designed for a rehabilitation process, currently it is available as an over the counter solution to addiction which is a financial strain especially on recovering addicts.

For more information on Methadone and its use for rehabilitation, watch:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwOKE1W53L4[/youtube]

-Guan Qun Zhao

3 Comments

Posted in Biological sciences

Tagged addiction, dependency, drugs, heroin, methadone, methadose, morphine

Category Archives: Biological sciences

Revolutionary micro-rocket medicine to stop bleeding

Hey, Nice Smile

Elepants Have Learnt to “Understand” Human

Hangover Preventing Beer

Dropping your food – how well does the five-second food rule work?

Using Neuroimaging to Understand the Impact of Seizures on Brain Development

Taking a hit on HIV

A Cup of Coffee for your Memory

Methadone: A Transfer of Addiction and Dependency.

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Category Archives: Biological sciences

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