AAAS is coming to Vancouver!

I am interested in attending the Predictive Medicine seminar that is held on Friday 1-2.30 pm. The field of predictive medicine is one that predicts possible and potential diseases that may plague an individual. Predictive medicine also includes coming up with measures to stop the onset of these diseases instead of curing an individual after deadly symptoms have surfaced. The seminar will introduce current methods of monitoring and detecting changes in body chemistry and how in vitro cell biology has allowed professionals to understand how environmental stresses can influence an individual’s health. Finally, with other technologies it is possible to monitor and predict outbreaks and spread of epidemics.

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4542.html

Forest Fires in Canada: Impacts of Climate Change and Fire Smoke

Forest fires are a major phenomenon in Canada that has to be dealt with every year. There have been studies done to show that through the last years there have been increases in forest fires, which will lead to affects in climate change and to human health. A team of researchers will show how forest fires are changing in quantity through paleontological as well as statistical methods; they will show how extremes of fires are altering, and also show how fire suppression has changed throughout the years.

I find this interesting, because living in Canada, forests are a large part of our make-up and, especially in British Columbia where most of our ecosystems revolve around the presence of forests. Living in the wilderness, I have witnessed many forest fires and I have seen the impact that they have on climate and human health. I would like to learn more on just how much the quantity of forest fires has changed throughout the years, and if scientific evidence has been brought up to show the effects on climate, and if so how much of a problem is it to us and do we have to worry. I would also like to learn how the forest suppression has changed, and how much of an impact that change has on forests and fires.

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4456.html

The seminar that I am interested in attending is “Emerging Risks in the Global Food System.” This seminar will discuss the effects of environmental factors on food availability in the local and global scale and what people from various occupations (including scientists) can do to meet the challenge of providing for the global population. The topic is changing environment and its effect on food availability. This is interesting to me as it shows that 3 large issues the world faces today (growing population, changing environment, food source depletion) are actually related to one another.
Questions I have are:
– Will the change in food availability have a severe effect on Vancouver? (As our climate is fairly moderate)
– Can the relationship between environmental change, food disease and food availability be modelled? (in a graph)
– What is the role of scientists in this issue?
– Will environmental change affect food industries in our region?

The seminar that most interests me is the one called, “Stem Cell and Cell Therapy Approaches to Understanding Cell Injury and Wound Healing”, held on Friday the 17th from 3:00-4:30 pm. What caught my eye about this topic was the use of Stem Cells– it is a topic that intrigues me greatly. My initial T1 topic was about how researchers used stem cells to grow epidermic cells on rats so that one could both test treatments on these skin patches as well as transplant healthy tissues to replace ‘sick’ cells; however, my topic was rejected. Never the less, it was a topic that interested me and I would love to learn more about his field. I am fascinated by the potential of stem cells, and considering the seminar is about the study and research regarding stem cells, this seems like the perfect topic for me.
In addition to speaking about tissue repair and healing, they also explore the potentials behind epidermal stem cells, dermal stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and embryonic stem cells, which all contribute to the regeneration and formation of skin and eye tissues. Some questions of mine include what applications they are using stem cells for so far, and and what they are trying to work on currently. Also, I am wondering how exactly they are able to manipulate the stem cells in order to produce the desired end-result cell.

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4466.html
The seminar that I am interested in is on Routes to Enhance Photosynthesis. The fuels we are using today are mostly a result of prehistoric photosynthesized energy that is stored in sources such as fossil fuels. Right now photosynthesis is used by all plants, algae and some bacteria to produce a form of energy for themselves. However, we know that a process such as photosynthesis could not be 100% efficient. Crops such as wheat, barley and potatoes can only utilize 5% of its photosynthesized energy. This puts a great limit on such a useful tool that we can use to produce sustainable energy. This seminar discusses multiple projects that are going underway to efficiently harness the energy from the sun to enhance photosynthesis. This topic interested me because I did not know that in some plants only a limited amount of photosynthesized energy can be used. I always thought of photosynthesis as a simple process where carbon dioxide combines with light and water to produce glucose and energy for the plants. I wonder what kind of process the scientists would use to try to “harness” more energy from the sun. What kind of equipment and measurements would be involved? And if the process of harnessing the energy itself would be environmentally friendly?

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4530.html
At the AAAS symposium, the seminar entitled “Can Proteomics Fill the Gap Between the Genome and Phenotypes?” would fixate on an the interesting field of proteomics. This seminar would offer insight into the connection between the genome and phenotypes by taking a look at the unexpected roles of protein systems, such as splicing, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and other protein-protein interactions. This seminar would shed light upon the deep protein connections with in each proteome (entire compliment of proteins in a cell) which can help us understand how information is generated. This seminar also discusses the role of the Human Proteome Project, which could more specifically transfer this search for a connection between the genome and phenotypes to humans. By understanding this in humans, diagnostics for diseases can be improved and accomplished earlier on and treated properly.

This seminar piqued my interest for a myriad of reasons: its relation to my T1 project, my interest in molecular biology, and the possible consequences of being able to understand this link. My T1 project discusses the role of phosphorylating proteins and how these insights into the mechanisms that prevent DNA re-replication due to phosphorylation could also lead to disease prevention. Since the onset of this course, I have also found myself drawn to the field of molecular biology and been interested in the mechanics of how our cells work, and the mechanisms that accomplish this. Also, I was drawn to this because of the great possibility that the Human Proteome Project could have in increasing the chance of properly diagnosing diseases and implicating effective treatments.

Pondering the synopsis of the session, a question that I would have is how do they measure the protein-protein interactions and how does that transfer into greater understanding about the genome? Also, I wonder as to which diseases can possibly be diagnosed with greater accuracy as a consequence of the Human Proteome Project?

The seminar “Causes and Effects of Relative Sea-Level Changes in the Northeast Pacific” will explore the interconnected factors ramifying the change in our ocean levels. Relationships between the lithosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere will be discussed including the effects that each zone faces due to climate change. Geological events, such as earthquakes and glacial recession, as well as human impacts such as greenhouse gas production will be considered to provide a broad perspective of the global climate issue.
As a resident of British Columbia, my interest in the topic sparks from the local and personal meaning which will be brought to the global warming phenomenon. Though presently intangible as a gradual progression, evidence which will evidently be provided in this seminar will reveal how our the coast of British Columbia will be affected by the slowly rising sea levels. Awareness of a change which could alter the habitability of Vancouver, as regions close to sea level could eventually become submerged and inhabitable to terrestrial creatures, will promote the search for solutions. I value living with a global knowledge of the impacts of my lifestyle and strive to seek out the small sustainable actions I can make to prevent the realization of predicted climate change outcomes; this seminar could provide ideas for helpful actions individuals can take of which I would be interested in learning.
I am curious about how the natural geological factors affecting climate change relate to the anthropogenic impacts; it seems that a cycle exists between the human production of greenhouse fumes causing global warming, which causes geological occurrences such as glacial melting, which further warms the planet with the loss of cryosphere substance. However, natural geological disasters such as earthquakes seem to occur independent of human actions. Suggestions have been made that climate change would be occurring regardless of human impacts; although, our actions accelerate the phenomenon. Thus, I would like to understand the origins of climate change, where human impacts fit in the mix, the predicted trends caused by the warming planet, and how humans can alter the course of doom to which they have contributed.

Predictive Medicine:
http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4440.html

The seminar discusses how advancement in the biological sciences and technology may cause a shift in modern medicine. Thus far, medicine has been responsive in that treatments are only made following the appearance of symptoms. However, with technology allowing for detailed monitoring of body chemistry, the measurements made could someday become sophisticated enough to detect any changes in response to environmental stress very early. Already, web queries have been used to detect the arrival of flu in cities while satellite imaging can help predict impending outbreaks of diseases in large regions. By being able to prepare for or even prevent the appearance of disease, medicine will have become predictive.

Predictive medicine is interesting to me because it could represent a complete shift in both medical research and technological development. We have highly advanced technology compared to even a decade ago, and yet we still rely on symptoms to diagnose and treat diseases. As opposed to the current technology we have though, I’m curious to know what kind of sophistication or changes would be needed. That is, would there be any focus be on imaging technology or perhaps spectroscopy (such as NMR) to chemically detect early responses to stress? If some combination of both would be needed what would be the next step or priority toward predictive medicine? What other problems aside from the flu and vector-borne diseases could predictive medicine ameliorate? Lastly, in terms of the spread of diseases, would technology also need to work closely with predictive mathematical models?

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4073.htmlThe seminar entitled “Stem Cell and Cell Therapy Approaches to Understanding Cell Injury and Wound Healing” would emphasize on an interesting field, cell repairing. Thus far, researches on stem cells such as epidermal stem cells, dermal stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and embryonic stem cells, have shown that stem cell has the capacity of self-renewal and has potential to restore the structure and function to the skin and eye after severe injury. This seminar would provide insight into the connection between wound healing and stem cells by taking a look at recent advances in dermal-, ocular-, and pulmonary-induced injury along with potential stem cell– and other cell-based therapies correlated with tissue repair and wound healing.

This seminar arouses my interest because it could be a breakthrough in the medical research of wound healing and transplants. The repairing function of various stem cells in human would implicate effective treatments not only on chemical burns, but also on a wider variety of diseases including leukemia with bone marrow transplants. Furthermore, as the stem cell obtains the ability to regenerate, it may be treated as the antioxidants with anti-aging benefits. By pondering the synopsis of the session, I am curious about how cells response to various stimuli such as thermal burns as well as chemical injury. Also, I wonder as to which degree can wound possibly be repaired with the use of stem cells? How do scientists manipulate the stem cells in order to get the ideal repairing effect? Lastly, in terms of the organ failure, would stem cells be used to serve as a treatment of sick cells?

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4440.html

The talk focusing on predictive medicine will discuss the concept of medical treatment in the form of preventative medicine. To date, medical treatment is primarily treatment of diseases that are already present, but predictive medicine focuses on foretelling diseases that might be a problem in the future, and preparing, or preventing them before they become an issue. This also encompasses the prediction of disease outbreaks, which can possibly be detected by satellite imaging.

This sounds like a fascinating field, and would be an excellent seminar to attend. The idea that mass disease outbreaks could be detected and prevented before they occur would be a huge step forward for the medical community, and populations that would be affected. I think that infectious diseases would be a really interesting field of study, and this seminar directly relates to that topic, as it would have huge implications for infectious diseases if this research was broadened to a point where it was applicable to large populations.

Delivering on the Promise of the Human Genome Project
http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4575.html

The seminar is on the implications and applications of the human genome project, eleven years later. The project has always been hoped to revolutionize treatments of a vast amount of diseases and disorders. The seminar focuses on the significant obstacle of delivering synthesized small interfering RNAs and microRNAs to target cells. I have always been interested in genetic disorders and how they afflict individuals. I think there would be a lot of insight into what genetic properties cause such diseases. I have always had lots of questions on just what causes cancer and other disorders. Another question I have is exactly how the siRNAs and microRNAs are expected to treat the disorders. This is not really discussed in the description, which focuses more on overcoming the barriers to the treatments instead of the treatments themselves.

Winning: Superbugs or Surveillance and Science?

Antibiotics resistance and drug development has become an arm race between pathogenic bacteria and humans. Abuse of antibiotic substances could easily lead to new strands of antibiotic resistant bacteria, or superbugs. While researchers and medical professionals are now well aware of the danger of this phenomenon and governments have put regulations in place, there are still many weak spots in our defense against superbugs.

I became interested in the topic because of a worrying incidence I came across. One day I was at a store looking for hand cream, I was surprised to find that there was an entire shelf of anti-bacterial hand cream. When I ask a staff in the store whether the cream contained antibiotic ingredients, she had no idea what I was talking about and said she did not know. The symposium of this seminar says the consequences of superbugs are well known to the general public, but based on my experience there is still a lot of misconception.

My questions are 1. What kinds of regulations have been put into place to limit the use of antibiotics? 2. What is being done to alert people about the dangers of antibiotics resistance? 3. How do we respond to an outbreak of superbugs?

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4531.html
I would be interested in attending the seminar “Seeking Biosphere’s Dark Matter: Genomic Methods on Unculturable Microbial Diversity.” When one initially pictures a human dependence on species diversity, the immediate connection made is to the plant and animal materials that are crucial to our survival. However, it is easy to overlook the influence biodiversity on a microbial level has on humans, despite the enormous effect fluctuations in microorganism diversity could have on our species and the processes we depend on for survival.
It would be very interesting to learn about how a decline in biodiversity at a microbial level might affect us in the future. I am also intrigued by the ways in which these studies were conducted; the idea of studying uncultivated microbes is new, and it would be very interesting to hear about the methods being used to observe microbial diversity in their natural habitats.

I am interested in attending the seminar “Forest Fires in Canada: Impacts of Climate Change and Fire Smoke” that is held on February 19th. A team of researchers will discuss the challenges that arise in managing forest fires, analyze fires in a historical context as well as talk about the impacts of smoke on our health. This topic particularly interests me because it is so relevant; living in Canada and being among forests have contributed greatly to my appreciation for them. I would like to know if there are any ways of predicting when a fire will occur or predicting the severity of a fire. Also, I understand that some forest fires can be “good” for the environment as it releases build-up of fuels—do we try to fight all forest fires? How do we distinguish between “good” fires against “bad” fires? Additionally, how does climate change affect forest fires? Are forest fires majorly caused by environmental factors such as lightning or are they mostly caused by people; and if it is more caused by people, what can we do it stop it?

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4604.html
Society and the government are hard to convince to act against climate change. With hope visual media can be used to spur society and its people to start thinking of a way to help our planet and reverse or at least slow the effects of climate change. While using presenters of multiple disciplines getting a message across will hopefully be easier than ever. Amazing breakout discussions will be available to help people think about climate change in a new and critical light.

I would love to attend the seminar “The Fermi Gamma-Ray Mission: Transforming Our View of the High-Energy Universe.” NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Mission has recently made some significant findings in the field of high-energy physics. Using Fermi’s Large Area Telescope, 1000 new sources of gamma rays have been discovered. The LAT has detected hundreds of active galaxies, which would provide valuable insight on the black holes that can accelerate particles moving close to the speed of light. The seminar will also introduce new-found gamma-ray-emitting pulsars. I am interested to know why these pulsars only shine in the presence of gamma rays and cannot be seen under any other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
I remember the first time I was introduced to this area of physics was through Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I was immediately captured by the beauty and mysteries of the universe. I am interested to find out about these and other new exciting results, what implications these discoveries have on our understanding of the state of the universe, and perhaps how it would elucidate the mysteries of enigmatic phenomena such as the black hole. I also want to learn about gamma-ray emissions and Crab Nebula, which was regarded as a high-energy gamma-ray standard candle.

The seminar that interests me the most is “AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, and Law Reception” on Friday, Februrary 17th from 6:30 to 8:00. I have read The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks during the break, and was greatly inspired by it. The ethics involeved in science interested me since I have first come in contact with it in grade 12 in Stem Cell Talks held at UBC. Though this topic is not directly related to the Science One curriculum, I feel that it is the most important aspect of science that one should understand before choosing a career in the field, and one that connects all four subjects in Science One more strongly than any other. Since 90% of our class aims to be involved in the medical field, I fell that ethics surrounding research and human rights is of great importance to us.

This seminar evolves around the connections between scientific responsibility, human rights and law. This seems to be a new program that has been introduced this year, and little information has been released.

Through this seminar, I hope to understand further the reasons and motivation behind the quite sudden recognition of human rights in the twentieth century, and the effect of the restrictions set on research by human rights code and law. I would like to know if there were special cases where the ethics have been allowed to be dismissed, and what the consequence of disobeying an ethical code for a scientist is.

My previous effort to post this entry seems to have failed, so I will try to do so again here. I apologize if this ends up being a duplicate post as a result.

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session4158.html

The seminar I would have liked to have attended is “Endangered and Minority Languages Crossing the Digital Divide”. This seminar proposed using the new tools and technological advancements of the current digital age to help record endangered and dying languages in order to preserve them for future generations and to ensure their survival in a world that is becoming increasingly globalized. I am incredibly interested in languages (the only elective I’m taking this year has been a language course), so this topic quickly captured my interest. As a person interested in learning as many languages as possible (or at least the basics of as many as possible) at the moment, I was intrigued by the seminar’s idea of integrating language preservation features into modern technology (e.g. having the option to use Twitter in a minority language), which would potentially provide the world – and specifically the younger generations – with relatively easy access to learning these dying languages, thereby preserving them and preventing them from vanishing completely. One of my main questions about this seminar is whether access to these minority languages would be restricted by region or to those of a specific ethnic background. For example, I am quite interested in learning Cymraeg (Welsh) and Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic), languages which now respectively have only about 500,000 and 60,000 native speakers worldwide, and as such I would be rather dismayed if access to such a potentially useful resource were restricted to those living in Wales/Scotland or elsewhere within the United Kingdom. Additionally, I wanted to know how trustworthy these resources would be in terms of mistranslations, since other easy-access translation services like Google Translate are somewhat infamous for their sometimes comical mistranslations of basic phrases in even mainstream languages like Spanish and English. Since this service would be aimed at minority or endangered languages, it seems that it could be possible that these inaccuracies would be more prevalent in languages with fewer sources that would be able to confirm the accuracy of the translation.

I would have been most interested in attending “Delivering on the Promise of the Human Genome Project.” As an aspiring geneticist and lover of molecular biology, I immediately gravitated toward the topic. I find the Human Genome Project fascinating and would be excited to learn more about its applications. The seminar focuses on possible human disease targeting via siRNAs and microRNAs, which work quite selectively. An obstacle of inserting these RNAs into target cell cytoplasm is identified. I would be curious to find out whether researchers have hypothesized a method of successfully implementing siRNA and microRNA treatment, and to learn about the research currently being conducted. I would like to know whether siRNAs and microRNAs are considered as significant contributors to cancer development as opposed to other factors such as epigenetic modification.

I would have attended the seminar named “Forest Fires in Canada: Impacts of Climate Change and Fire Smoke”.

The seminar discusses the methods of fire management and the potential risks of using new computer-based methods. There will also be a presentation on how forest fires are investigated and the health concerns raised by exposure to smoke. The history of forest fire occurrences will also be explored and correlated to aboriginal suppression activities.

This interests me because I have lived my entire life in BC and have often heard about the damage forest fires can cause, economically and socially. Furthermore, they also plan to discuss the health risks of smoke exposure that I correlate back to my dislike for smoke, wondering if it is a personal peeve or a health-related sensitivity. I also want to hear an elaboration on the new methods they have developed in fire management that include remote sensing, which I draw a blank on. Finally, the note on aboriginal suppression activities and its relation to forest fires also intrigues me.

I would have many questions about the quantitative methods of fire management that the seminar mentions as in my mind, I see fire management as helicopters dumping water of forests and forest rangers and firefighters aiming a hose at the flames. I can imagine that there would be some justification for how many people should be helping and how many helicopters should be deployed but I’m curious as to how that is quantified. I would also wonder as to what aboriginal suppression activities are and in what situation would they occur.

http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2012/webprogram/Session5249.html
Although I did not have the chance to attend AAAS this year I was very interested in listening to the session of “John P. McGovern Award Lecture in the Behavioral Sciences: Joseph E. LeDoux, The Emotional Brain”. The topic of this session was on the neurological factors behind fear processing and fear responses. An animal model was used to locate the circuits through different locations of the brain that are involved with fear processing. These areas were identified as the sensory systems and amygdala, with the lateral nucleus of the amygdala playing a large role in sensing fear and processing responses. The amygdala is also a region for neural synaptic plasticity which may be involved in the fear extinction—a process by which a conditionally learned response in the presence of fear/pain is forgotten in the absence of fear/pain. This session looks at these sections of the brain and their interactions with the amygdala and how they behave in the presence of fear.

I am interested in this session because I have always been incredibly interested in psychology. Extinction is a relatively new concept to me and I would really like to learn about how extinction works. I am interested in the neurological processes that explains human behaviour, like fear responses. I believe that this research could also lead insight into aspects of human evolution (e.g. the development of “fight-or-flight” responses and bursts of adrenaline). And, more importantly, the neurology of fear has always been a subject of morbid fascination for me.

Some questions I have for this is how accurate can we expect the responses of the animal model to be in when related to a human model. I would also like to know if it’s possible to test this on a human model and how they would go about doing so. Also, because psychopaths have been shown to have a lower response in the amygdala compared to other human beings I would like to know how fear processing and responses would be different in psychopaths or those with psychopathology. Another question I have is how this research would contribute to finding treatments for those with anxiety disorder (as stated by the website) and if/how it could also hold relevance in finding treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.