Zach

Japan team create liver from stem cells: report
In an effort to continue with my theme of health news, i found an article which in fact ties in with my week two article about an artificial heart being used to keep a baby alive until a transplant was found. Similarly in Japan, a team of doctors and scientists were able to create an actual liver from stem cells. While body parts like ears and noses have been artifically created in the past, one thing seperates this development from the others: this liver is actually working. While we all know that stem cells have the ability to differentiate into other cells, stem cells have come under fire in the past few years because of the fact that they are harvested from developing embryos. However, this live was created not through embryo stem cells, but through something called an iPS cell. These cells are very similar to stem cells with the only difference being that they are taken from human adults instead of embryos. This breakthrough could eliminate the political feuding surrounding stem cell development. According to the article, "a team of scientists transplanted induced pluripotent stem ( iPS ) cells into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver." This is a huge development for health everywhere as it could provide people in need of organs with a chance for survival. []



Experiment lets spine-injured rats walk, climb
Keeping with my theme of groundbreaking health procedures and discoveries, I recently stumbled upon a very interesting article out of New York. Apparently, through stimulating nerve circuits, coupled with physical training, doctors may have discovered a new procedure which would enable victims of spinal paralysis to walk once again. While similar progress has been made in the past, this recent breakthrough is much more impressive because of the methods used in order to encourage the rewiring of the brain and spinal cord. These first tests have been done on rats and have achieved surprisingly effective results. The stimulation was electrical current from implanted electrodes plus injections of a chemical mix. The experiment entailed placing the rats “in a harness so that only their hind legs reached the ground. Then they were placed on a treadmill, which produced only reflexive stepping, and on stationary ground, where they had to choose to make their legs move if they wanted to reach a piece of chocolate.” While this seems like a simple test that would only produce minimal results, the rats actually “took their first voluntary steps about two to three weeks after the training began, the researchers said. The rats still needed the harness later to keep their balance. The treatment produced an extensive rewiring in the brain and spinal cord, and the lead researcher said that more than 100 rats have regained walking ability to varying degrees.” These results are extremely important as they could one day lead to the ability of some to recover mobility after suffering a spinal injury. Last year a similar experiment was done on a paralyzed Oregon man. After implantation of an electrical stimulator, the man was able to stand and move his legs up to a point. Even though the rats tested were in fact given a different sort of spinal injury normally seen in humans, the research and soon to be paper is still enough to breed further advancement in the field. With the amount of people suffering spinal cord related paralysis in the world on a daily basis, the prospect of possibly being able to walk again is an exciting dream. Hopefully in the future further advancements can be made as this is only the first step down a long road to giving some the gift of recovery. []



Italy doctors save baby with smallest artificial heart
Because of my great interest in medecine and cardiac surgery in particular, one recent news article really peaked my interest. Recently in Italy, doctors were able to successfully transplant a tiny artificial heart into a 16-month-old baby boy in order to keep him alive until a donor was found and a real human heart could be transplanted. There was just something about this article that fascinated me. In my opinion it is just truly amazing how far science and healthcare have come that we are now able to almost create organs. The boy was suffering from a disease called dilated myocardiopathy, a heart muscle disease which normally causes stretched or enlarged fibers of the heart. The disease gradually makes the heart weaker, stopping its ability to pump blood effectively. To counter this, the doctors first implanted a tiny pump to aid his original heart until an infection took over and forced new options to be considered. According to doctors, "the tiny titanium pump weighs only 11 grams and can handle a blood flow of 1.5 liters a minute. An artificial heart for adults weighs 900 grams." Thanks to the genius of American Doctor Robert Jarvik who is in fact one of my personal heros for his developing of the jarvik-7 artificial heart, this baby boy is now able to live. This is an amazing achievment that cannot be stressed enough which could lead the way for other surgeries of its kind. The development of artificial organs could save the lives of billions of people in the future and is sure an exciting thing to keep watching.

=**Week 1:**=

Could Autism actually be a good thing?
After watching the HBO film on the autistic woman Temple Grandin, i was greatly interested in what some of the theories on autism in humans are. In the past i had heard an interesting theory that autism was not a disease but more of a next step in the process of evolution and that the autism gene actually containes many advantages and has been a nesecarry part of the development of humans as a species. While the down side of having autism is obvious to everyone, the abilities that some savants like Temple Grandin have is very interesting. After some research i found that studies have in fact been done on this very topic by prominent psychologists around the world. One study in particular struck me as interesting. "Jared Reser, a brain science researcher and doctoral candidate in the University of Southern California Psychology Department, argues that many of the traits seen in autistic individuals including heightened abilities for concentration, spatial intelligence and memory — and even an unusual capacity for being solitary and not being dependent on the usual sorts of human social interactions — would have made someone a highly capable “hunter-gatherer” in prehistoric times" ([]). The drive of many austistics to "finish a job" could possibly be described as a benefical trait back in the earlier years of human development. Just because todays society considers austistics as abnormal does not mean that they were always out of place.

Below is a radio interview about the Solitary Forager theory: media type="youtube" key="mr6FfRXoSzc" height="315" width="420"

Similar to the study done by Jared Reser, "In a commentary published this week in the journal Nature, Laurent Mottron, a professor at the University of Montreal, argues that autism should be seen as a strength, even among those on the spectrum who are not savants. 'Recent data and my own personal experience suggest it’s time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, not a cross to bear,' says Mottron, who studies autism and employs several people with the disorder on his research team. In his commentary, Mottron points to skills such as identifying patterns and memory recall that people with autism tend to excel at. Such skills can be a boon in the sciences and other career fields. 'Too often, employers don’t realize what autistics are capable of, and assign them repetitive, almost menial tasks,' Mottron writes. 'But I believe that most are willing and capable of making sophisticated contributions to society, if they have the right environment'" ([]).

One question asked, however, is why austism has not been naturally selected out of our genome throught the years? In fact, it has been suggested that autism is a very ancient mutation as it is carried in almost every race of people. According to recent statistics, thirty years ago, its estimated that one in every five thousand children born were autistic and today its down to one in one hundred fifty. In the UK its one in fifty, and Japan is even lower. While these results may be from increased diagnosis of autism, the one thing to be drawn from this is that autism is not something that has been naturally selected OUT of our genome but rather INTO it. This must mean that it has or still does provide us with an advantage.

In Conclusion:
Do not get the wrong impression. I am not disscounting the terrible struggles that autism puts people and families through, i am simply saying that autism does provide benefits for humans which may explain why it is still so prevelent in society. In response to Aleks post about this wiki, i feel like not him specifically but everyone should look at autism as more of a condition as a disease. This is a topic that could be discussed for days on end....unfortunatly we do not have days as this is only a wiki post.