We have no seminar on November 11th. It is a University Holiday.
Next week, November 18th, two graduate students will present their work.
Ms.
Nina Lenkey will present Utilizing Phage Display Technology to Identify a Peptide
Ligand to Bind to Type 8 Capsular Polysaccharide of Staphylococcus
aureus (background reading:(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021215516430).
And Mr. Aaron Mrvelj will present Effects of Fluoridated Water on Pineal Morphology in Male Rats (background reading: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25863844).
Have a great three-day weekend and see you next Friday!
It was interesting to know that Aaron started this whole project off a conspiracy theory that drinking fluoridated water would calcify the pineal gland and more interestingly he found there was a correlation between the two. The cells in the pineal gland shrink in size, appear grainy and increase their number of liposomes with age, light exposure and due to sleep deprivation. In the pineal gland, the calcium hydroxyapatite structures called Acervuli, increases in number with age. Flourine is shown to accumulate in these hydroxyapatite rich regions and produce free radicals that alters pineal gland morphology. It would be interesting to know how fluoride influences the morphology of pineal gland and how the animal’s weight and their behavior is altered. Also it would be interesting to know that what is the effects of increasing fluoride concentrations would be on the progress of Alzheimers or Dementia.
ReplyDeleteDue to its substantial antibiotic resistance against even vancomycin, the development of novel treatments for Staphylococcus aureus infections is critical. In her presentation entitled Identification of a Peptide Ligand that Binds to Type 8 Capsular Polysaccharide of S. aureus, Nina Lenkey described a potentially valuable target for vaccines. The target is the type 8 capsular polysaccharide which comprise the capsule of particularly virulent strains of S. aureus. With the aide of Phage display, she and her team were able to isolate two peptides (Plaque 9 and Plaque 1) which displayed the most significant affinity for S. aureus capsular polysaccharides which they hope to submit for further testing. Recently, the Huffington Post published an article about the United Nations meeting about this antibiotic resistance, escalating it to a global health crisis. Some scientists have even suggested that antibiotic resistance is so severe that humanity is headed back to a time before antibiotics when people were at the complete mercy at microbial infections. Do you believe this to be true, that it is too late to “fix” the problem of antibiotic resistance? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteHere is the link for the Huffington Post article, just in case anyone is interested in reading it.
Deletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/antibiotic-resistance-crisis-un_us_57d8ea87e4b0fbd4b7bc66c4
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ReplyDeleteI feel that both of our peers did excellent jobs in presenting their research pertaining to their theses. I was aware of the epidemic of antibiotic resistant S. aureus as Nina presented, but was not as familiar with effects of fluoridated water on the pineal gland; It will be interesting to see what Aaron discovers upon the conclusion of his research. As for Kayla’s post pertaining to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria setting the global community back to an era before antibiotics, I disagree. There is overwhelming research to show that these strains are devastating in nature, but in most industrialized societies, a vast amount of people are vaccinated/immune to various ailments creating “herd immunity” among the population, thus I don’t believe microbial infections will ever be as bad as they were before antibiotics. With this being said, I don’t believe it is too late to “fix” the problem of antibiotic resistance.
ReplyDeleteBrain is the organ with the lowest fluoride in the body and the excess accumulation of fluoride in the brain may lead to decrease in production of melatonin and affect pineal functions hence destabilising body’s circadian rhythms. More so, it damage neuro- protector that plays an essential role in aging process and Alzheimer’s. Therefore, the Aaron research project on “fluoridated water” is worthy educative and therapeutic since melatonin plays major roles not only in the brain but controls the coordination of the whole body.
ReplyDeleteI think the Huffington Post article Kayla shared is a really interesting read. I think it's good that this problem is finally being brought to attention. However, I do not agree that it is too late to "fix" this problem. Granted, antibiotic resistance is happening and there are setbacks arising in medicine due to that, but I think there is still time to "fix" the problem. We are the ones who discovered antibiotics, therefore I believe that we are capable of discovering a solution for antibiotic resistance. Additionally, I found both Nina's and Aaron's presentation to be very intriguing and it was cool to hear about the work our fellow grad students are achieving.
ReplyDeleteI found both of the presentations to be very interesting. I am doing research similar to Aaron's currently, so the information he presented was very relevant and informative to me. Nina's presentation was especially fascinating to me, because I was aware of the epidemic of antibiotic resistance, but not to the extent that she presented it. In response to Kayla's question, I definitely don't think it's too late to fix the problem. As Marissa said, I believe that we are fully capable of finding a solution to "fix" antibiotic resistance.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Kayla’s post, I would agree that it is too late to “fix” the issue of antibiotic resistance. The misuse of antibiotics is too widespread and any attempt at educating the public would take too long to see any significant effect with respect to the situation. The resistance genes are established and removing them completely from the genome would be a long and difficult task. I feel that it is more practical to pursue other avenues of research which will yield alternative treatment option like vaccine development or multidrug therapies. Assuming that research receives the funding it needs, developing alternative treatment options is the easier part of the problem in my opinion. The more difficult aspect is educating the public and regulating the treatment. If we don’t learn from antibiotic resistance, we will have a far worse situation however many years from now.
ReplyDeleteMisuse and overdose of drugs, have contributed to the antibiotic resistance. this resistance develops when potentially harmful bacteria change in a way that reduces or rather eliminates the effectiveness of antibiotics. The fact that this phenomenon is growing public health concern worldwide, it really never too late to fix the problem.
DeleteHumanity is not moving backwards, to a time before antibiotics. Antibiotics resistance is well established within many microbial communities. This is something that I believe will remain, regardless of the development of novel conventional antimicrobial agents. Alternative treatment methods for infections will be paramount in the near future - something I believe is completely within humanity's reach at this point, given the current technology. Nina's research is a perfect example of this.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, antibiotic resistance is gradually but surely arising. The good thing is that the issue is being brought to light. I do not believe we cannot fix the problem. As a few people mentioned, we are a generation of growth and discovery. I think we are definitely capable of finding alternative methods to treating this issue and at least improving the situation, just as we have done in the past with other medical dilemmas. Aaron and Nina had great presentations that were very interesting. Good job guys!
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