Dima

Can anyone make a consumer device that is a phone plug in for salival health diagnosis (inflammation, allergy etc.) This could be a phone attachment where you place some saliva inside the device and it gives you an analysis of various health markers on a smartphone app. Is this possible??

I am not saying that we cannot do anything with it. What I am saying that unless someone comes up with a good way to interpret the data we will remain descriptive in nature.

E.g. we may see differences between different states, but if it is anything like omics data, we will have at least two challenges. The first is that most like the differences will be subject to quite a bit of biological noise. I.e. we are likely not getting clear-cut and reproducible difference between a "baseline connectome" (which is more or less arbitrarily what we define as normal) and pathologic states. The exceptions could be in the extremes where major differences start happening. But that does not necessarily teach us a lot of how the brain normally works.

That leads to the second challenge. How do we translate these descriptive information into something that is of physiological relevance?

 

Of course, there may be approaches that may be viable and since I am not an active researcher in this field it may be just my ignorance. However, articles are these posted in OP sound awfully the same as the issues we are facing in the omics field (which happens to fall into my area of expertise).

Sure. Also, I think that all the data will not only be for connectomics aka mapping brain connections per say; you can extrapolate a TON of other science from stacks of EM micrographs, so if all this data is shared with other researchers, we can:

1. map brain connections

2. see what other changes occur compared to control. For ex: changes in volumetric parameters; organelle size, synapse density. Tweak some methods and youll also see protein localization and identify cells.

3. Reconstruct all that to make awesome 3D models

This is a lot work and currently the problem is in computation.

As for the biological noise problem, I agree we haven't a clue about how all the different cells of the brain work in concert; I also think a sure-fire way to create even more biological noise is to approach the problem from a biochemical or molecular perspective: with all the different cells in the brain it will be even more difficult to put all that data together as a whole once we have all the molecular pieces and most likely, they will not coincide with each other.

Electron microscopy, on the other hand, provides data that you can see and use readily.

Suppose you had been around and Ben Franklin had asked you, "Do you think I can learn anything if I fly a kite in a thunderstorm?" Based on knowledge of the times, you know nothing about electricity, and you know lightening sometimes strikes and burns down buildings. What answer would you give?

1) You will revolutionize science.

2) I don't know.

Yes

Or in some cases they just show what does not work, which by itself can also be rather valuable (though often not highlighted for obvious reasons).

However, as a reviewer I would gladly throw the same money on a more limited study that provides approaches to make something with the data. Unfortunately sometimes the big ones are an easier sell as people oftentimes still prefer to fund the next big thing (especially if bigshots are involved) rather than going for slower but incremental gain of knowledge. Even if the big thing eventually amounts to less in the end.

 

Though this arguably due to the the semi-politization of science funding.

Why do you think that we can't "make something" with the data? The data will show how brain connections differ in pathologies.

There is a debate as to whether mapping brain connections on the microscale with electron microscopy is a worthy undertaking.

I think it will be awesome and comparable to sequencing a genome. Once we map brain connections in diseased brains we can compare them to normal, compare mice to monkeys and eventually to humans in diseased and normal states and young vs old.

Does anyone think for example: a project to map the brain of a an ape is worth pouring billions of dollars into; why/not ?

Requirements:

1. Faster methods of imaging brain slices with an electron microscope

2. Machine learning computers to trace out all the connections at synapses from those images

3. Capacity to store potentially many zetabytes of imaging and analysis data

A critical look at connectomics:

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v13/n12/full/nn1210-1441.html

Here is some preliminary evidence for a plant extract called Bacopa monierri; worked in c.elegans. There is a lot more studies like this one.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bacopa+parkinsons

Thanks for all the responses guys!

There is ample evidence for example in Ayurvedic medicines and other traditional herbal remedies for various diseases, the mechanism of treatment is unknown of course, but it is most likely the result of the specific combination of chemicals (not one or two) that are contained within the plant that work together synergistically with their enzymes.

It is also possible to see that an extract has beneficial effects in-vivo/vitro; from here, if this is a life-saving treatment: Why can't you make this extract into an FDA approved medicine that actually heals people?

If there is evidence that a plant extract is good for treating Parkisons disease, how do we make this a drug? Are there other ways to make this a mainstream treatment for pd, without making it a drug?

Thanks,

Dmitriy

hi guys, can u please help me with this one. its about blood coagulation.

i did an experiment on factors affecting blood coagulation. blood was extracted from the ventricle of rabbits and distributed in several test tubes. one of the test tube's inner surface was lubricated with liquid paraffin before the blood was poured. can someone please tell me how does that affect the blood coagulation.

It depends on what kind of reagents you used, but if it was pure blood, it would not have any effect. Parafin wax is hydrocarbon chains and is pretty insoluble, still not a good idea to use it because it contains impurities. Which could be present during purification and bing to your column. What kind of experiment is this?

**Edit. I am wrong on this one, listen to the biology expert below.

Thanks guys. I made up my mind and will stay here. It is only undergrad and I have a limited amount of time left. Has anyone been in a similar situation?

1200 people viewed this question and didn't answer it. WTF

Hi. I have been doing undergrad research in biochem for about 5 months now. However, the summer is approaching and I am thinking about switching to a different lab. I want to do this because 1. my PI did not get the undergraduate grant, and I would have to essentially work there for free 2. The project is not very exciting and the atmosphere, not intellectually stimulating. Should I switch labs to something i am more interested in?.. how will the switch reflect on my grad app...(ie do they want to see commitment to lab). I should also mention that i only have 2 more semesters until graduation. Thanks.

yes, but the argument is that the SDS coats the proteins giving them all an equal charge supposedly. Is it true?

....separates proteins by size. But, technically does the charge affect the separation AT ALL or is negligible? I don't think anything should be negligible in science do you lol?

This is a tricky question in my opinion, and does (again, in my opinion) not have a simple answer. Bacteria under stress for instance, can induce an error-prone repair system which will increase their mutation rate by quite a bit. In addition, mobile genetic elements also act as mutagenic agents, which different organisms. In eukaryotes, different cell types have different mutation rates. Based on that, mutation rates are only rough estimates and are highly dependent on the organism, even the tissue within an organisms and their overall exposure to mutagenic agents. In single celled eukaryotes mutation rate estimates are going to be higher than in more multicellular ones, for instance, as only mutations in the germline are going to be detected (so, it is also slightly a matter of how mutation rates are estimated.

 

Overall, however, due to the fact that they are all single-celled, plus overall higher exposure to mutagenic agents (including mobile genetic elements) plus higher potential of horizontal gene transfer (of which the before mentioned MGEs also play a role) plus error prone repair systems I would think that on average, the estimates for prokaryotes should actually be higher than for eukaryotes.

 

Edit: Repair mechanisms in proakaryotes are actually pretty good and mutation rates are generally adjusted for generation time, so these two answers are not really relevant.

Lol ive been trying to figure this out for days now. Does anyone else know?

Which has a higher mutation rate prokaryotes or eukaryotes?

This was a question on my exam, i wrote prokaryotes and it was wrong. I was thinking along the lines that prokaryotes have less DNA repairing mechanisms and they divide at a much faster rate than eukaryotes. Can someone please explain to me RIGHT answer to this question, because I'm pretty sure that I am right, or why I am wrong. THanks.

Why do prokaryotes have all those DNA polymerases (I, II, III, IV, V) if DNA pol I has all the needed activities (3'-5' exo, 5'-3' exo, 5'-3' polymerization)? Why not just have DNA pol I????

It seems a lot of people misunderstood your questions. The enzymes are also synthesized from (ultimately) a DNA template, the first ones come from parental cells and all subsequent ones are made in the cells from amino acids. Yes, in order for DNA replication to occur efficiently you need those enzymes in place, but once the process is running it sustains itself, as long as you provide the raw materials (mineral nutrients + amino acids).

 

The nucleotides are floating around in the cytoplasm. They also come initially from parental cells, and then are synthesized in the cell once the cell machinery is functioning.

...what i was looking for, thank you!

I realized that "in the first place" i was actually referring to the chicken or egg conundrum. Let me be more specific...In development in general, where do the enzymes of the central dogma of m.b. come from? If anyone has a good link that would point me to information on how exactly those enzymes are synthesized (in a cell) would be great.

Thanks.

I mean @ a single cell.

So codons code for amino acids. But during new DNA replication, there are already proteins (enzymes) made of amino acids that sequentially come together to make new DNA. Where do all those enzymes come from (helicase, polymerases, ligases, topoisomerase) in the first place? In order for DNA to occur those enzymes need to be in place first right? Also where does DNA polymerase get its nucleotides to be inserted into the 3' strand? I am a 3' lagging strand.

Thanks.

That's awesome, I truly think people like that are special. Is there any way a person can alter the color of their iris through eating certain types of food?

Hi i have IE 9 and the chatroom does not load inside the window someone HELP. Thanks.

What are some good hd shows/movies?