Library Prize for Undergraduate Research
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Discovery of Oncogenes: the Advent of Molecular Cancer Research
COMMENTARY COMMENTARY Discovery of oncogenes: The advent of molecular cancer research Klaus Bister1 structural comparisons of the a and b subunits Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences, University of Innsbruck, of biologically cloned viruses, the transforming A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria principle was defined by the remarkably simple equation a − b = x and was later termed src td (for sarcoma). The first biochemical identifi- In their classic paper on the identification of defective ( ) mutant derivatives, they found cation of a cancer gene was achieved, initially the transforming principle of Rous sarcoma that all transforming virus stocks contained in a chicken virus. However, the principal proof virus (RSV) published 1970 in PNAS (1), two classes of RNA subunits, a larger one a b of a physical underpinning of the cancer gene Peter Duesberg at the University of California, ( ) and a smaller one ( ), whereas the non- hypothesis had tremendous impact on a fun- Berkeley, and Peter Vogt, then at the University transforming yet replication-competent mu- damental challenge of medicine, decoding the of Washington, Seattle, drew a seemingly sim- tants contained the smaller b subunits only. a molecular basis of human carcinogenesis. ple yet groundbreaking conclusion. When they Duesberg and Vogt concluded that the larger The genetic and biochemical investiga- analyzed the genomic RNAs of transforming, subunit contained the transforming princi- tions of the chicken tumor virus RSV and the acutely oncogenic RSV and of transformation- ple of RSV. Based on this and on subsequent persistent search for its transforming prin- ciple are a classic paradigm in cellular and molecular cancer research (2, 3). -
Cholera, Migration, and Global Health – a Critical Review
Int J Travel Med Glob Health. 2018 Sep;6(3):92-99 doi 10.15171/ijtmgh.2018.19 J http://ijtmgh.com IInternationalTMGH Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health Review Article Open Access Cholera, Migration, and Global Health – A Critical Review Niyi Awofeso1*, Kefah Aldabk1 1Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE Corresponding Author: Niyi Awofeso, PhD, Professor, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +97-144241018, Email: [email protected] Received February 1, 2018; Accepted April 7, 2018; Online Published September 25, 2018 Abstract Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The causative agent of this disease was originally described by Filippo Pacini in 1854, and afterwards further analyzed by Robert Koch in 1884. It is estimated that each year there are 1.3 million to 4 million cases of cholera, and 21 000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide from the disease. Cholera remains a global threat to public health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social development. A global strategy on cholera control with a target to reduce cholera deaths by 90% was launched in 2017. Before 1817, cholera was confined to India’s Bay of Bengal. However, primarily following trade and migration between India and Europe, by the 1830s, cholera had spread internationally. The global spread of cholera was the driving force behind the first International Sanitary Conference in Paris, in 1851. The global health significance of cholera is underscored by its inclusion as one of four priority diseases in the 1969 and 2005 International Health Regulations. -
HIV an Illusion Toxic Shock
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE generated from a linear model could be a and Ho's] data is remarkable", note that vmons per day is not defined or function of both the baseline CD4 level Loveday et al. 8 report the use of a PCR addressed, nor can it be! No one else has and viral loads. Further studies with larg based assay and find only 200 HIV "virion access to either the unapproved drugs or er sample sizes are needed to resolve RNAs" per ml of serum of AIDS patients the branch PCR technology! What is the these discrepancies. - 1,000 times less than Ho and Wei. So benchmark rate for the turnover of CD4 Shenghan Lai, J. Bryan Page, Hong Lai much for the "remarkable concordance". cells in the general population? Departments of Medicine, Peter Duesberg To counter the 42 case studies of Wei et Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Department of Molecular and Cellular al. 1 and Ho et al.2, we at HEAL (Health University of Miami School of Medicine, Biology, University of California, Education AIDS Liason) can provide at Miami, Florida 33136, USA Berkeley, California 94720, USA least 42 people who are western-blot-posi Harvey Bialy tive for 'HIV', have low T4 cells, who are Bio/Technology, New York, not using orthodox procedures, and have HIV an illusion New York 10010, USA been healthy for years! On the other 1. Maddox, J. Nature 373, 189 (1995). hand, we can also provide you with hun SIR - In an editorial' in the 19 January 2. Ho, D.D. et al. Nature 373, 123-126 (1995). -
Cholera and the Pump on Broad Street
CChhoolleerraa aanndd tthhee PPuummpp oonn BBrrooaadd SSttrreeeett:: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JOHN SNOW Laura Ball Senior Division Paper AFTER ALL, IT REALLY IS ALL OF HUMANITY THAT IS UNDER THREAT DURING A PANDEMIC. -- Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization There is still a pump in the Golden Square neighborhood on what was once called Broad Street. It does not work, for it is merely a replica of the original, and like the original its handle is missing. It serves as a curiously simple monument to the events that took place over one hundred years ago, when the real pump supplied water to the Broad Street residents. In 1854, hundreds of these hapless locals dropped dead within days of each other as Soho experienced one of the most brutal outbreaks of cholera that London has ever seen.1 Not even the most eminent physicians could say what caused the disease, or why it came and went as it did. John Snow’s solution to the cholera crisis broke the medical conventions of his era, slowed the progress of a virulent intercontinental disease, and forever changed the way society confronts public health problems. CHOLERA, THE BLUE DEATH Cholera plagued civilization for many generations before John Snow’s breakthrough. Medical researchers confirm that cholera was present in India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though records of diseases with cholera-like symptoms extend back as far as the fifth century B.C. The first intercontinental surge, referred to as the First Pandemic, occurred from 1 John Snow, “On the Mode of Communication of Cholera," 2nd ed., Snow on Cholera (New York: Hafner Publishing, 1965): 38. -
HIV-AIDS Assignments Grade 11
Oral History Center HIV/AIDS in American History Assignments – Grade 11 September 2020 For more information on curriculum, see the Oral History Center website. Table of Contents OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................................... 2 PODCAST EPISODE 1 ........................................................................................................................... 2 THEMES .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 ASSIGNMENT: WORKING WITH THEMES IN THE HIV/AIDS INTERVIEWS ..................................................................... 3 Preliminary sample assignment: AIDS campaign.................................................................................... 3 FOUR POSSIBLE ASSIGNMENT TOPICS ................................................................................................. 3 ASSIGNMENT 1: WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINES: GENDER, IDENTITY, AND VALUES ....................................................... 3 Sample curriculum ................................................................................................................................... 4 Sample assignment ................................................................................................................................. 7 ASSIGNMENT 2: VIRUS HUNTERS: THE SEARCH FOR HIV ........................................................................................ -
The Myth of John Snow in Medical Geography
Social Science & Medicine 50 (2000) 923±935 www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed Our sense of Snow: the myth of John Snow in medical geography Kari S. McLeod* Yale University School of Medicine, Section of the History of Medicine, Stirling Hall of Medicine, P.O. Box 208015, New Haven, CT 06520-8015, USA Abstract In 1854, Dr. John Snow identi®ed the Broad Street pump as the source of an intense cholera outbreak by plotting the location of cholera deaths on a dot-map. He had the pump handle removed and the outbreak ended...or so one version of the story goes. In medical geography, the story of Snow and the Broad Street cholera outbreak is a common example of the discipline in action. While authors in other health-related disciplines focus on Snow's ``shoe-leather epidemiology'', his development of a water-borne theory of cholera transmission, and/or his pioneering role in anaesthesia, it is the dot-map that makes him a hero in medical geography. The story forms part of our disciplinary identity. Geographers have helped to shape the Snow narrative: the map has become part of the myth. Many of the published accounts of Snow are accompanied by versions of the map, but which map did Snow use? What happens to the meaning of our story when the determinative use of the map is challenged? In his book On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (2nd ed., John Churchill, London, 1855), Snow did not write that he used a map to identify the source of the outbreak. -
Lessons from an HIV Denialist in the Hills of Thailand
Lessons from an HIV denialist in the hills of Thailand Brian Chang Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA I spent a month volunteering with Dr. Mark,* a physician in community. Further, denialist movements often go beyond science, the hill tribe villages of northern Thailand, in the summer of 2010. becoming “a social movement in which large numbers of people He was born in Myanmar, graduated from medical school in India come together and propound their views with missionary zeal.”3 and founded a small grassroots organization dedicated to the health HIV/AIDS denialism itself exists in a spectrum, ranging from of hill tribe villagers. He spent the last five years moving from village the rejection of the fact that HIV is a virus, to the denial of the caus- to village along the mountainous Thai-Burmese border, working on ative relationship between HIV and AIDS. I read arguments from sanitation projects and seeing patients in makeshift clinics. He is hard Dr. Peter Duesberg, a prominent cancer researcher, member of the working, humble and is known for his fluency in eight languages, in- National Academy of Sciences and a key voice in denying that HIV cluding all six of the local hill tribe dialects. During my month with causes AIDS. I also read claims from groups like RethinkingAIDS, Dr. Mark and his organization, I helped build toilets, collect water an international group of over 2,500 scientists, doctors and journal- supplies and run medical clinics. ists “reevaluating the HIV/AIDS hypothesis.”4-6 In fact, AIDS de- Through this experience and my discussions about HIV/AIDS nialists (including Dr. -
Environmental Development 1 (2012) 3–9
Author's personal copy Environmental Development 1 (2012) 3–9 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Environmental Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envdev John Snow, the Broad Street pump and the precautionary principle Bernard D. Goldstein University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States article info abstract Article history: In 1854 John Snow was responsible for a major advance in Accepted 30 August 2011 environmental health science when he demonstrated that cholera epidemics were waterborne rather than airborne. By mapping the Keywords: disease outbreak he identified a specific London water source, the John Snow Broad Street pump, as its proximate cause. Removal of the pump Precautionary principle handle was temporally related to the end of the epidemic. For his Environmental science very careful mapping of an epidemic resulting in a new under- Epidemiology standing of the cause of disease John Snow is considered to be the Toxicology father of the science of epidemiology. More recently, many who advocate the precautionary principle have adopted this historic event as paradigmatic of action taken under precaution. They point out that Snow’s efforts occurred before the identification of the cholera microbe or an understanding of the germ theory of disease. Snow’s example seems to demonstrate that it is important to act on the possible association of a cause with an effect without a theoretical underpinning for the association and in preference to obtaining the scientific information needed to appropriately inform the decision. In contrast, I argue that Snow, an accomplished inhalation toxicologist, used his basic science knowledge to discard the erroneous associations that had previously led to the belief that cholera was an airborne disease. -
Medicine in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Britain, C.1700-C.1900
Year 10 History Knowledge Organiser – Key topic 3: Medicine in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, c.1700-c.1900 2. Key dates 1. Key terms 1 1796 Edward Jenner tested his vaccine on James Phipps. He infected him with cowpox, and this 1 Microbes A living organism which is too small to see prevented him catching smallpox. without a microscope, this includes 2 1842 Edwin Chadwick published his ‘Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Classes’. bacteria. 1847 James Simpson discovered that chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic. 2 The A movement of European intellectuals that 3 Enlightenment emphasised reason rather than tradition. 4 1848 First Public Health Act – set up Boards of Health but was not compulsory. 3 Decaying Matter Material, such as vegetables or animals, that has died and is rotting. 5 1854 John Snow mapped the spread of disease around the Broad Street pump to prove that cholera was caused by dirty water. 4 Bacteriology The study of bacteria. 6 1858 The Great Stink near the Houses of Parliament prompted action on sewage. 5 Tuberculosis A disease which affects the lungs causing serious difficulties in breathing. 7 1861 Louis Pasteur published the Germ Theory 6 Cholera A waterborne disease which killed many 1865 Joseph Lister used carbolic acid for the first time. He wrapped up a leg after an operation in th 8 people in the 19 century by causing the acid-soaked bandages and the wound healed cleanly. body to become dehydrated. 9 1875 Second Public Health Act, made government intervention in public health compulsory. -
Water's Deadly Connection
WaterAid Water Wise Key stage 2/3 activities Water’s deadly connection WaterAid transforms lives by improving access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. Registered charity numbers 288701 (England and Wales) and SC039479 (Scotland) Water’s deadly connection Today we know that tiny microbes carried in water can cause all sorts of diseases. However, the connection between germs and illness was not always recognised. In fact, before the mid 1800s, diseases were thought to be caused by stale or "bad" air. There was little understanding about how microscopic life could affect humans. In 1861, things changed. With the presentation of the "germ theory of disease", microscopic organisms were identified as the cause of many diseases. In 1854, a cholera outbreak in London was studied and analysed by the British physician John Snow. By plotting the location of cases, Snow was able to discover that the cluster of cases seemed to suggest an association with water not “disease causing” air. Can you do the same type of investigative work? In this activity, you'll model Snow's strategy as you plot and analyse the location of victims of a mysterious waterborne epidemic. Materials Pencil Copy of Snow's London map and victim location table Steps 1. Examine the map entitled "John Snow's Map of London". Note how an overlay of the grid lines divides the map into 49 square regions. Each of these regions is identified by a letter (horizontal row) and a number value (vertical column). 2. Examine the table that illustrates the location of the disease victims. -
28Th Pumphandle Lecture 2020 “Africa CDC: a New Public Health Order” by John Nkengasong
Broad Sheet The newsletter of the John Snow Society Summer 2020 28th Pumphandle Lecture 2020 “Africa CDC: A New Public Health Order” by John Nkengasong Dr. John Nkengasong is Director of the Africa He has received numerous awards for his Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. work including the Sheppard Award, and the William Watson Medal of Excellence, Prior to his current position, he served the highest recognition awarded by CDC. as the acting deputy principal director He is also recipient of the Knight of Honour of the Center for Global Health, United Medal by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire, States Centers for Disease Control and was knighted in 2017 as the Officer of Lion Prevention (U.S. CDC), and Chief of the by the President of Senegal, H.E. Macky Sall, International Laboratory Branch, Division and Knighted in November 2018 by the of Global HIV and TB., U.S CDC. government of Cameroon for his significant contributions to public health. He is an He received a Masters in Tropical adjunct professor at the Emory School of Biomedical Science at the Institute Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, and serves on several international advisory Thursday Belgium and a Doctorate in Medical boards including the Coalition for Epidemic 10th September Sciences (Virology) from the University Preparedness Initiative (CEPI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). 3:00 pm London time of Brussels, Belgium. Because of the Covid-19 Please note that places are limited and thus prior registration is necessary. crisis, the lecture will be Members are being informed first, with this Broadsheet notice, and are delivered remotely. -
Abstracts from the 3Rd Conference on Aneuploidy and Cancer: Clinical and Experimental Aspects Berkeley, CA, USA
Molecular Cytogenetics 2017, 10(Suppl 2):21 DOI 10.1186/s13039-017-0320-x MEETING ABSTRACTS Open Access Abstracts from the 3rd Conference on Aneuploidy and Cancer: Clinical and Experimental Aspects Berkeley, CA, USA. 26 - 29 January 2017 Published: 22 June 2017 I1 in favor of supposed land bridges that had disappeared. The sec- Overview of the 3rd Conference on Aneuploidy and Cancer in ond problem with oncogenes is that overexpression of single genes Berkeley, CA USA in 2017 almost never has any metabolic effects, and under-expression usu- (Organized by Peter Duesberg, Department of Molecular and Cell ally has only minor effects. That is why about 85% of mutations in, Biology, University of California at Berkeley and David Rasnick, Oakland say, yeast, are “silent” [6, 7]: eliminating them from the genome CA; sponsored by philanthropist Robert Leppo, San Francisco CA USA) usually produces no change in phenotype. When “knock-out mice” Athel Cornish-Bowden ([email protected]) first became available [8] it was expected that the function of any Directeur de Recherche (Émérite), Centre National de la Recherche gene could be revealed by observing the effect of eliminating it, Scientifique (CNRS), Marseilles, France but most such experiments led to disappointment. When a mouse Molecular Cytogenetics 2017, 10(Suppl 2):I1 completely lacks a protein such as myoglobin, which has a well- understood function in muscles, it can remain healthy, even when David von Hansemann noticed in 1890 that all of the cancer cells exercised [9]. that he examined were aneuploid and suggested that the aneu- The almost negligible effects of altering the activities of single genes ploidy might be the cause of the cancer [1].