BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Author: tayega

Forbidden Baby Editing

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On January 21, 2020

In Student Post

We all at this point in life have come to know what gene editing is. The technology for it is slowly and forever becoming more and more advanced. The scary thing about editing genes is the fact that we have to potentially affect a baby’s life their entire time alive. It has many different problems which is why its going to take a long time for it to fully get approved in the hospital.

Well unfortunately in an article found here there was a fright to figure out that someone had actually edited the genomes of some babies without people knowing. Many scientists condemned scientist He Jianku as it came to light that he had done something that the science was not ready for yet. He used CRISPR Cas9 tech in order to alter some genes of a few babies. The definition of CRISPR is here but basically it is a general tech to edit the genomes of babies that haven’t been born yet. People were up in arms about the process because he had bypassed the ethical laws and needed up editing the genes of a real live human. People in the science community go on to say that the CRISPR technology just isn’t ready to be executed on a human. There needs to be many more trials before it is used on a person for real. There is progress to make sure this doesn’t happen such as fines and bans from research however they are trying to make sure that it doesn’t happen at all. It gives scientists a bad name and he is trying his best to not let that happen. Technology will always advance and the hard part is trying to make sure that tech is ethical. Hopefully this gives insight to how we can prevent things like this happening in this day and age

Running on Bacteria

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On November 13, 2019

In Student Post

In a recent article it was found that elite athletes could have a step above average people due to some of the bacteria found in their gut. Researchers took stool samples what from elite runners from the Boston marathon in 2015 and found that there was a spike in appearance of the Veillonella. An in depth definition of what Veillonella is can be found here. For the purposes of the research it was said that these bacteria appears to take lactate produced by the muscles in the body and turns it into a compound that helps out the endurance of a runner. This same trend of increase of Veillonella was also found in 87 ultramarathon runners and Olympic rowers after a workout.

To prove their findings they cultivated one strand of Veillonella called Veillonella atypical from the runners and fed it to mice. They also gave the mice lactate in order to give the Veillonella food to feed on in the mice’s gut. The results to this was a 13 percent increase to the length of time these mice could run. However at the same time not all of the 32 mice that they gave this strand of Veillonella actually reacted to it. With the mice the Veillonella used the carbon from the lactate to grow and ended up producing propionate. An in depth definition of propionate can be found here. Propionate ended up raising the heart rate and oxygen use in the mice. For humans propionate also raises metabolism.

 

The overall take from these experiments give an interesting take on how these elite runners can do what they do. The food that someone eats isn’t the only thing that affects the microbiome in a humans gut. These bacteria could appear in the gut after only one session of working out or it could be something only certain people have and others don’t. It could also just be something that people who don’t focus heavily on running experience but it isn’t quite known yet. These things could also appear to The overall fact that bacteria in the stomach could be a big part of someone being athletically gifted is new and interesting to the scene of science. I find this cool as I’m a runner and a basketball player myself so to see that the bacteria in my stomach is what helps me do everything I do is incredibly interesting. Next time you run a mile or finish a game of your preferred sport thank your gut. The bacteria in there could just be the reason your body can do it at all.

 

Adapted Bacteria vs AI

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On October 29, 2019

In Student Post

In a recent article it has been found out by researchers at Washington State University that it is possible to find antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria with machine learning and game theory.

In the world of health and medicine one of, if not the biggest discovery is antibiotics. They were the most simple way of clearing out or slowing down the reproduction of bacteria in the human body. People a long time ago had been dying left and right to bacterial deseases and antibiotics helped the expectancy of everyone’s lives. However eventually after it started being used bacteria with DNA that has antibiotic resistance survived and reproduced. Eventually it could be problematic as there’s many ways to acquire resistances as said here. With certain bacteria that many people used to be infected with a lot and since people used antibiotics for it certain bacteria had vast resistances as there’s very limited antibiotics to kill one type of disease. If there was a strand of bacteria completely used to antibiotics it could wipe out the human race. If you want to learn more on that it could be found here

 

Although it isn’t too bad and we haven’t run into many bacteria that resist antibiotics, it can also be very dangerous if a person takes an antibiotic that the bacteria in their body is resistant to. The bacteria then wouldn’t die and thy would also expand and live on to reproduce and make the problem worse since it was technically not treated. However with what the people in Washington state university are doing computers would more and more be able to find the bacteria that have genes resistant to certain antibiotics.  The AI would learn more and more what genes are likely to be ones that resist antibiotics and they will be able to apply that to other situations. This method used worldwide would really help people know what type of antibiotics to give sick people. If a strain of bacteria is treated with antibiotics that most of it is resistant to not only could the person die but the existing bacteria in that persons body could be extremely dangerous if it reproduces as said before. So knowing if that bacteria does indeed have a resistance could be pivotal in many peoples lives. This could also happen at new speeds since that is one of the biggest advantages of using AI.

Not only is this new method very fast it is also very efficient. The researches at Washington state had been able to determine this at an accuracy rate ranging from 93% -99%. These constant advancements in health and technology show how the implementation of tech into health has changed life as we know it and will continue to forever.

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