Modified Babies, Yes or No?

Recently, The British Parliament made a groundbreaking decision that allowed the creation of what many call “three-parent babies.” A “three-parent baby” is a special form of in vitro fertilization (IVF,) or mitochondrial transfer and the technique involves replacing DNA in an egg in order to prevent devastating inherited mitochondrial diseases.

Scientist will first remove the nucleus of a healthy donor egg and then transfer the nucleus of an egg with damaged mitochondria into the body of that healthy donor egg. Therefore, when that egg is fertilized, it will have its normal complement of genes from both the parents, as well as a small amount of mitochondrial DNA from the healthy donor egg.

(The picture shows the process of creating a three-parent baby)

The government says that such a technique will enable women to avoid passing on malfunctioned Mitochondrial DNA that terrible conditions like muscle weakness, seizures, blindness, deafness, organ failure and even death.

At the first glance of the words “modified babies”, I am pretty excited; “yes! I am going to make my baby girl look like a Victoria Secret model!” And then I read on, the Mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) makes up about 0.1% of a cell’s total DNA, which means it does not affect individual characteristics such as appearance.

I think I am not very supportive of the UK government decision, and I don’t think I will practice such a technique on my own baby. I understand that many mothers with fatal diseases are looking to have healthy babies, but my question goes: Is mitochondrial transfer technique safe enough? When the baby is born, who should be her/his legit mother? Will such a law encourage the selling of the human egg?

So, what is your opinion on IVF? Please make your comments below!

For further reading:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11385315/How-mitochondrial-donation-involved-in-three-parent-babies-works.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/opinion/the-three-parent-babys-first-step.html

Picture:

“How Mitochondrial Donation Involved in Three Parent Babies Works.” The Telegraph, 3 Feb. 2015. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11385315/How-mitochondrial-donation-involved-in-three-parent-babies-works.html>.

HIV

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is very different from the virus that cause you cold or flu. HIV can never be got rid of and they will stay in your body for a very long period. So what is HIV exactly? Who will most likely get infected with HIV? Find out more information here!

https://infograph.venngage.com/infograph/publish/5cc3baad-572d-43f5-bc6f-a8646e2ed434

Reflection on Crack the Code of Life

I really enjoyed watching the NOVA video about the Human Genome Program. I was fascinated upon what I learned from the video. First, I learned about HGP, it is a research aiming to sequence and map all of the genes of members of our species, and I also learned that the goal of HGP is to read the letters of human DNA and find out early rare risks for kinds of genetic disease.

I was also amazed how computer improved the gene mapping. During the old process, scientists would read the nucleotide base by putting one letter at a time next to the band and write it on a piece of paper,  and then put the data in computer (Such a painstaking job). Now the computer can read thousand of letters within one second, so that scientists can be much more efficient.

Furthermore, I got to know some important figures in HGP. For instance, Biochemist Craig Venter, who is one of the first people to sequence the human genome, found Celera, a private team focusing on genetic sequencing. Celera can collect genetic data and the drug companies can use these data to do their medical research, inventing drugs to cure the disease.

There were some heart-wrenching scenes too. In the video, a very cute lonely baby boy, Hayden, was examined to have Tay Sach’s. Tay Sach’s is a genetic disease that can slowly destroy the baby’s brain and eventually lead to baby’s death. Before Hayden turned 3, he died.

It shocked me because TS is incurable, and Hayden’s parents could nothing but to anticipate Hayden’s death, what a torture to parents! More unfortunate is, Hayden’s parents are both carriers, and his dad’s twin brother, Hayden’s uncle, and Hayden’s aunt, are both carriers too. So Hayden’s cousin is tested to have TS too. (How rare is that!)

Therefore, I think HGP is needed because it can really help people when dealing with producing next generation. If the HGP runs successfully, there will be two major benefits: First of all, the baby’s health condition can be detected, so the parents can avoid giving birth to babies with severe disease, thereby improving the rate of survival. Second, if there is a patient with a broken gene, the research group can find a copying gene to replace the broken one.

However, If I have to chance to examine whether I have an incurable disease, I will not choose to do so. Because I think it will change my attitude towards my life ever since. I might feel sad and depressed after knowing I have an incurable disease.

All in all, I really enjoyed Crack the Code of Life video, and I strongly suggests you to watch it!

For Cracking the Code of Life video, please check here:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1841308959/

Ebola lecture at UC Berkeley Nano High

 

On Nov. 1st, 2014, my AP biology peers and I sat in on the class at UCB. The topic was about Ebola, and Dr. Donald Pinkston Francis, who had worked on Ebola back in 1970s, gave us the lecture. He had worked in different countries such as Sudan, India, China and Bangladesh, so he is a very experienced epidemiologist.

At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Francis introduced himself and his family, saying “There is some inevitable fighting in the family, because my daughter goes to Stanford and my wife and I are Berkeley graduates.” And audience all laughed.

Later, Dr. Francis talked about some basic information about Ebola. It was interesting to know that a research group from UC Davis took the first Ebola virus picture (see below). Dr. Francis showed us the map of the Ebola outbreak regions. According to his map, Southwestern Africa had the most severe Ebola break.

i

Furthermore, Dr. Francis also shared his experience working at Sudan with us. In truth, African countries were very underdevelopment and it lacked a great amount of medical resources. Dr. Francis was one the few foreign doctors who worked there, and the life condition was very terrible. For instance, there was no water for shower and the food was limited. There were many mosquitos too. Further more, the local people would follow the culture and burn the dead bodies in the open field. Dr. Francis led his group to stop such action, pointing out that disease could spread in this way.

However, even though Ebola is a terrible disease, it is not undefeated. As the health condition worldwide (especially in Africa) improved over years, fewer and fewer people got infected. Dr. Francis shared a chart with us to show that the cases of people getting infected with Ebola decreased over years.

At the end of the lecture, it was Q&A time. I had few questions to ask and I did not get very clear answers. For example, the biggest question I had was: Could the survivor’s blood plasma be applied as a drug to cure Ebola? And the Dr. Francis said there is a possibility, and yet Ebola virus will mutate, so the further research is still needed. I think such a response is rather vague, so this is the only part I do not necessarily like about the lecture.

However, I loved the trip as a whole, I got to visit Berkeley and sat in on its class, which made me get to know the college class ambience. I also hang out with my AP bio friends. On the way home we got to have some dessert at Cream (Yummy!) If there is another chance, I would definitely do it again.

Look! It is the Strawberry DNA!

Hi there!

The other day Rebecca and I extracted DNA out of a strawberry at her house- Yes! You can extract the DNA without using complicated tools. Of course, there are some details you should pay attention, we recorded the process so check out the video below and see how we did it:

The materials will be needed are:

• Strawberry
• Isopropyl alcohol (5 mL)
• Dish soap (10 mL)
• Salt (1/4 tsp)
• Zipper-lock bag
• Sieve
• Water (90 mL)
• Beakers or similar containers
• Tweezers (We used the eyebrow tweezers)
• Spoon

You might wonder: how can we use these seemingly simple materials to extract the DNA from a strawberry? Well, here is how it works:

First of all, after smashing the strawberry completely (as shown in the video), we poured dish soap to dissolve the strawberry cell membranes, and then we added salt, which served to release DNA strands by breaking the protein chains of strawberry’s nucleic acids. Lastly, we used isopropyl alcohol to separate the DNA from the residue of strawberry.(Important step! We did not add enough alcohol and it was very hard to find DNA.)

Strawberry needs DNA because it needs to pass traits to its generation too. DNA plays an important role in encoding the genetic instructions in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Like many other eukaryotes, strawberry needs DNA to pass its genetic code to its offspring.

Thanks for watching our video! I strongly recommend you make the experiment at home; it will not take too long 🙂

For more information, please read:

http://genetics.thetech.org/online-exhibits/do-it-yourself-strawberry-dna

Save the Bay POST-trip Blog

Today, my Ap bio class went on the field trip toThe Palo Alto Baylands Reserve. As I got off the van, I was soon drawn into what appeared in front of me. The sky was cloudy and blue. the stream extended towards the mountains afar.

Memorable experience: We were divided into 3 groups and had our own task. We were asked to measure the salinity, PH and moisture of soil in different spots labelled with yellow flags. As our task processed, I found out that digging a 6-inch deep hole was actually a difficult job to do, because underneath the soil there were hard rocks and minerals. However, working with my friends was fun! I was exposed to nature and got to see different plants.

Connections with class:  I bit the pickleweeds that located close to the stream, they were crispy and super salty. The reason that piclkeweeds are salty is due to diffusion. When tide rises, the water contains salt will cover the pickleweeds and salt will diffuse into pickleweeds through their cell membranes. Further more, Palo Alto wetland provided space for birds and other species to live, it reminded me of what I learnt in bio about community, which is defined in the textbook as “All the organisms that inhabit a particular area; an assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction.” And Palo Alto Wetland is a great example of community, it contains various kinds of elements: Birds, trees, soil, crabs and plants.

What scientific information I learnt: 

1. Wetland is an area that is seasonally covered with water, and I previously thought of it as a region always filled with water. Wetland can function as an “aquifer” to store water. Palo Alto Wetland is home to various birds and fish due to its unique environment. 

2.  The data our group collected suggests that as we got closer to the water, the soil we examined contained lower PH; meaning soil close to water is more acidic. 

3.  Native and foreign plants can live together. For instance, the instructor helped us find a grass that did not belong to the California buckwheat. I learnt the diversity of plant species in Palo Alto wetland. Such example showed me biodiversity in Palo Alto Wetland. 

Citizen science and its importance

According to the dictionary, citizen science (CS) is a “scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists.” It is important because CS popularize the concept of a certain scientific subject and thereby bringing citizens’ awareness. What impact I did during the field trip was that I collected data and measured the moisture of soil. At first, the moisture of the soil (mineral part) remained 0, as I started to doubt whether the tool was not working, I detected that the moisture of soil reached a very high number(50!) when I approached water. 

Improvement?

I think before going on the trip, everyone should pre-read the instruction. Today I got utterly confused on how to measure the data using the tools they provided. If I had the chance to study the tools we would use, I believe our group would be more efficient! 

Feedback:

It was an absolutely enjoyable day! I was able to observe the beauty of Palo Alto wetland and have a day off school. On the way back to school, we even saw a perfect rainbow! I also figured that my friend Amanda is a very dramatic person :). All in all, I would certainly recommend to go there again!

Source: 

pictures by Meichen Li

Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
     Citizen_science>.

SAVE THE BAY PRE-TRIP POST

Tomorrow, my AP bio class will go to the Palo Alto Wetlands and have our “save the Bay ” trip. There, we can experience the beauty of Palo Alto Wetlands and observe various species. I think it is useful for learning because we can have physical interactions with the environment so that we will have a better understanding. Further more, going outside school is quite an enjoyable experience for not only do we get to breathe the fresh air, but also take a break from stressful senior work.

Personally, I’ve only been to Palo Alto twice for college visits, so I am excited to see another side, the more natural side, of Palo Alto. After reading through the STSFB blog, I am fascinated upon how many species that I have never heard of living there, such as brown rockfish. I wish I can know more about the specific types of species living there, and the methods we can apply to protect the bay area.

As a high school student, i wish I can bring more awareness towards environment protection among my peers. I will not only start to put efforts in recycling the plastic bags, reducing the amount of the batteries I ditch, but also ask my friends to participate with me.

For STSFB blog:

http://www.terragalleria.com/california/picture.usca9475.html

picture source:

http://www.terragalleria.com/california/picture.usca9475.html

Ebola outbreaks- KQED

Indeed, Ebola is a very dangerous disease. It is a viral illness of which the initial symptoms can include a sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat, and that is just the beginning: subsequent stages are vomiting, diarrhoea and – in some cases – both internal and external bleeding (BBC).

The disease has been found since 1976 and led thousands of people into death. According to statistics, it has caused 1,578 deaths in Liberia, 632 in Guinea, 593 in Sierra Leone and 8 in Nigeria. The reason that Ebola took place in Africa is the poor facilities and health system in Africa. Ebola is spread through close physical contact with infected people. It is very heart wretch to see so many suffered but there is little to no efforts we can make.

What we can do is that to make sure less people getting infected and stop the spreading of Ebola. Surely, there are solutions to keep human from getting infected.

Most importantly, Avoid contact with Ebola patients and their bodily fluids. Ebola is spread through close physical contact with infected people, so the most essential thing to watch out is the body contact. Ones should wear gloves and protective equipment, such as masks, and wash their hands very often.

We can help the people in Africa by donating our money, so that they can afford buying the medicine and equipments.

What do you think we can do? What more information you want to add to Ebola?

Further reading:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26835233

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ebola-vaccine-ready-year-end-25721068

Cite:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ebola-vaccine-ready-year-end-25721068

Picture resource:

http://fijione.tv/ebola-virus-death-confirmed-in-nigerias-biggest-city-lagos/

May~

FLOW-For Love Of Water

 

 

For.Love.Of.Water

 

During the AP Bio class, we watched the film FLOW, which reveals several facts about water and beverage industries. Take a look at the following list:

1. There are more than 2 million people die from water born disease.

2. Approximately 5,000-10,000 people get sick each year from tap water.

3.California only has 20 years of water. 

4. 10L a day per year only costs 2 dollars.

The statics, while shocking, indeed draws my attention to water condition. Water has laid the basic foundation of life formation and yet, its value is often ignored. It is heart-wretch to see kids in African are standing in line to get a little water while many other people (including myself) are wasting water everyday.

FLOW also talks about that people in developed countries such as China are using polluted water, which results in disease-spreading. Indeed, in China, the tap water is not drinkable because it contains too many bacteria and chemicals. The polluted water results in disease-spreading and it causes people to die. 

Further more, the film FLOW reveals how bottled water damaged the eco system when company is getting water from a certain area for instance, some companies try to pump out the water in the spring of Michigan, but the facilities they use damage the system and reduce the stream of Michigan spring. What is more shocking is that, unlike what has been described in the commercial, the water inside of the bottle is actually just tap water.No, not glacial water, not spring water. People are spending two dollars to buy a little bottle of “fancy” tap water, it is really wasteful. 

Beverage industry such as Nestle has given response to FLOW by saying that it helps people in Africa to get cleaner water and to build the beekeeping industry. They meant to ensure the longevity of local natural resources. Stop Nestle Waters rebuttal states that Nestle is lying about the fact that they collect hydrological data and analysis the water quality, or any fancy things they have done, they are lying.

In my opinion, I understand that the company wants to make profits and the environmental activists are going against the company. So the film FLOW is somewhat biased. But I do realize that drought has become a severe issue and actions have to be taken. There are some ways to save the water, I can collect my dirty clothes to a certain amount and then wash them, by reducing the times I wash clothes, I can save some water. Also, when taking a shower, I will use a bucket save the water before it turns hot. Most importantly, I will avoid buying bottle water.

All in all, everyone can contribute a little bit in saving water. This natural resource is so important for us that we should be aware. I also think FLOW is an amazing film because it provides me a new prospects on the facts of water. I suggest everyone go to watch the film. 

Further reading:

(Water and life)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZScEgE55XTM

http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

Citing:

“ManywomeninAfricawalktwotothreehoursonewaytoobtainwater.” Green Building
Elements. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.
<http://greenbuildingelements.com/2012/02/29/
getting-water-in-parts-of-africa-no-easy-task/>.

About Meichen

Hey!

My name is Meichen, Mrs. Sequira likes to call me Meeshel, and Mrs. Sullivan once called me Meigan, so if anyone finds my name hard to pronounce, you can just call me May, I really like this nickname.

I am currently a senior, and I am an exchange student from China, but that doesn’t mean I am a stereotypic Asian student,( you know, nerdy, straight As). I love sports, I do fencing, basketball and running. And my biggest interest is to watch funny videos on youtube.

I figured biology might be an interesting subject, it is related to environment, human and other creatures. I am obsessed with panda bears. During the summer I always go to the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center to volunteer.

I hope by the end of the school year, I know at least how many bones human have. I am very interested in how human body functions. And I hope that teacher can provide us a thorough understanding of biology and help us to prepare for the Ap exam. I expect myclassmates can help each other and be OKAY with mistakes (because i always say stupid mistakes XD)…

After the class, I am looking forward to attaining more knowledge about animals and environment.

AP sounds really hard, and the challenge I will face will be the vocabs. I took ap chem last year, and memorizing all the words just killed my soul. But I believe it’s a difficulty I can overcome by hardworking.

Very excited to work with you guys!!

(Also, I’ve been debated wether to post my video or not, and I guess I will do so since I spent time making my video, so…hope you enjoy!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_BqYp3JU-s&feature=youtu.be