It is finally here. After over six years of studying, pipetting, writing, pipetting, teaching, pipetting, planning, pipetting, troubleshooting, pipetting, attending meetings, pipetting, mentoring and then some more pipetting, the letter stating I have completed all requirements to be awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy in Microbiology from UC Davis has arrived. It will be a couple more months until the final diploma comes through the mail and there are still some manuscripts pending review to be published.
Taking a shot at better chances of survival, songbirds encounter stress. Long-distance migration is one of these stressful survival mechanisms. When birds are stressed, their bodies begin to produce hormones (glucocorticoids) which are meant to help the birds cope with stressors. But they become problematic when produced for too long.
It is an understatement to say that the pandemic has dramatically disrupted normalcy in one way or another. For months, going to work or school for many of us has meant not leaving the house. Additionally, we have all been advised to keep our distance from friends and family to avoid spreading the virus, making individuals--particularly adolescents--prone to feeling alone and isolated. Some teens may not even have access to electronic devices that allow them to virtually spend time with friends, making the lack of social contact especially hard for these individuals.
Although our brains remain the same size since early childhood, they continue to rapidly develop all the way into adolescence and even early adulthood. During this critical period in development, the cells within our brains called neurons continue to refine connections with each other so that important connections are strengthened and irrelevant connections are eliminated. Adolescence is also associated with alterations in the amount of chemicals released by neurons and the amount of receptors the chemicals bind to.
Is your mother to blame for your constant anxiety? For decades, Sigmund Freud made it popular belief that all mental health problems were products of how your parents raised you. Although this idea fizzled out by the 1980’s, it still influences the way many clinicians treat their patients. However, your mother is not necessarily to blame for your anxiety, especially in a society where socioeconomic challenges can have a huge impact on parenting.
Storytelling is vital to successful science communication. However, our inner scientist can often get in the way of telling a good science story. I read Don’t Be Such a Scientist by Randy Olson to learn more about what I can do to improve my storytelling.
Graduate student Nycole Copping works as a researcher in Dr. Jill Lynn Silverman’s lab at the UC Davis MIND Institute, a center dedicated to developing treatments for and spreading awareness of neurodevelopmental disorders. Neurodevelopmental disorder research often involves investigating behaviours of inbred mouse models for disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Angelman syndrome (AS).
In recent years, stem cell therapy has garnered a significant amount of attention. Are stem cell based-therapies for regenerative medicine the answer to an aging and ailing population? First, we should discuss what stem cells are, and why researchers want to use them in medicine. Then how could stem cells be used in the future, and what major step the healthcare industry, as a whole, will need to take to use stem cells for therapeutic solutions on a mass scale.
When discussing the most desired advancements in healthcare, a common phrase thrown around is “finding a cure for cancer.” However, it is unlikely there will be a single miracle drug developed to be a global cure-all for such a deadly and ubiquitous disease. Cancer is multi-faceted and varies widely from person-to-person, where in the body it affects the patient, and when it is detected. While there won’t be one solution to “cure cancer” there are several things that the healthcare industry can improve on in order to bring the dream of “curing cancer” closer to a reality.
