Stacey Smith
I'm a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. I also study epigenetic control of ERVs.
sa smith
Posts by this author
February 5, 2014
Do you all remember this story from last year?
Mississippi Baby Born With HIV 'Functionally Cured,' Doctors Say
I wrote about it a bit:
Wait…Did a kid just get cured of HIV?
The sequester and HIV/AIDS
But it was hard to say much without a paper. As I was doing some other reading last week, I was…
January 27, 2014
If you pay taxes in the US (and many other countries), you are helping fund HIV/AIDS research, including the development of HIV vaccines. This includes my research project, so, YAY! Thank you!
What happens, is, we pay taxes. Part of that cash goes to various government agencies to dole out to…
January 23, 2014
This therapy isnt perfect, but its a cool start!
Retinal gene therapy in patients with choroideremia: initial findings from a phase 1/2 clinical trial
'Choroideremia' is a kind of blindness caused by deletion of a gene called REP1. Because REP1 is on the X-chromosome, there is no 'second chance…
January 20, 2014
Trolling with Logic had me on on Saturday to talk about HIV! They already got the video uploaded-- audio only will be ready soon!
January 16, 2014
This happened over the holidays, and I totally missed it:
ISU researcher quits amid allegations of AIDS-research fraud involving millions of federal dollars
Han apparently added human blood components to the rabbit blood to skew the results. The human blood came from people whose bodies had…
January 15, 2014
Though this paper (the one I began talking about before a holiday break) is the reason for this post, this post is also an opportunity to address a question I have gotten a lot over the years:
Is HIV evolving to be more deadly?
The short answer would be: No, it doesnt appear to be. Scientists have…
December 19, 2013
Some people have emailed me this story, concerned about the evolution of a 'recombinant' HIV virus that makes people progress to AIDS much faster than 'regular' HIV.
Scientists Find Aggressive New HIV Strain
This is the paper they are referring to:
Faster Progression to AIDS and AIDS-Related Death…
December 18, 2013
Okay, I have written a LOT about the connection between wayward ERV activity and Multiple Sclerosis. This is something scientists have been investigating for a long time... but we still do not know exactly what is going on.
It seems the running hypothesis is that 'something'/'somethings' alter the…
December 11, 2013
Only a couple days left to get Monty Harpers next science-songs-for-kids album funded!
In case I have not made this clear in the past, I really appreciate Montys approach to exposing kids to science.
He does not dumb things down. He demands that the scientists he works with do *not* dumb down their…
December 10, 2013
Some of you might remember this story from last year:
Evolution: Crime Fighting Machine
A hospital technician, David Kwiatkowski, has been accused of stealing pain medication (100 times as potent at morphine) and sterile needles from surgical patients. Not only did patients not get the pain…
December 9, 2013
Bone marrow transplants and HIV. I have been writing about this topic for a long time. Quick recap.
1. Some people with HIV-1 infection subsequently get blood cancers.
2. Sometimes those blood cancers need to be treated with bone marrow transplants.
2a. If the patient gets a transplant from a CCR5…
December 2, 2013
WHOO!
FREE book on GMOs, written by actual scientists and farmers, compiled by a former anti-GMOer who is now convinced of GMOs utility:
The Lowdown on GMOs: According to Science
I found out about this book from two of my friends, Karl Haro von Mogel and Anastasia Bodnar. These two were part of…
December 1, 2013
Hey guys!
Monty Harper is trying to raise funds to do ANOTHER 'Songs from the Science Frontier'!
Not only does he have some great rewards for donations (for $15, you get the songs, totally reasonable), he has got a bunch of new donation bonuses up for Cyber Monday, like including your kids voice in…
November 21, 2013
Well, some of you! And maybe me!
Last year, scientists combed through Neanderthal and Denisovian DNA sequences (yeah, those exist!) and found fourteen ERVs that were in Neanderthals and/or Denisovians, but NOT humans.
Neandertal and Denisovan retroviruses
SUMMARY:
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) last…
November 18, 2013
When someone is dying, you treat what is killing them first.
This might seem obvious, but its not-- People wondered 'If we can cure people of HIV with bone marrow transplants, then why dont we give everyone bone marrow transplants??'
We can only give HIV+ people with blood cancers that are killing…
November 14, 2013
I love viruses, and I love ERVs, but I am not the only one :-D
Here are some links to pieces people have written about these lovely pirates, from three different perspectives.
1-- Nicholas Covington at Humes Apprentice (formerly AIG Busted!) is more a philosopher than a scientist, but even as a '…
November 13, 2013
I have written quite a bit about the connection between wayward expression of an ERV, and Multiple Sclerosis.
ERVs and Multiple Sclerosis
ERVs and Multiple Sclerosis, #2
ERVs and Multiple Sclerosis, #3
ERVs and Multiple Sclerosis, #4
ERVs and Multiple Sclerosis, #5
I am very comfortable saying…
November 11, 2013
I have no idea how the leopard got its spots, but scientists have figured out how horses got their leopard spots!
Evidence for a Retroviral Insertion in TRPM1 as the Cause of Congenital Stationary Night Blindness and Leopard Complex Spotting in the Horse
Get this!
Scientists have known for a few…
November 9, 2013
If you know me, I have raved about these products for a long time, just to my friends. But I thought it was high time Paulas Choice got its own shillery post.
Over the past couple of years, people in the skeptic community have mentioned wanting skepticism to branch out into 'lady topics', like…
November 8, 2013
I dont know about you all, but I love those infographic things people create. They make statistics a lot more understandable and relatable than a chart of black-and-white numbers. Here is a cool one that turns devastating diseases into really pretty graphics ;)
An infographic by the team at Online…
November 5, 2013
In the past two weeks I have:
1-- Defended my dissertation
Thanks in part to the extra experience I got giving presentations during my graduate student career, this was not a big deal for me. I rather enjoyed it, but I wish I had more time (I 'shortened' my presentation to 73 slides. :-/ ).
2--…
September 11, 2013
After I cleared up everyones confusion on why chicken gonads are lopsided, and why we have white chickens, I thought I would tackle another one of lifes great mysteries.
Admit it. Youve wondered where the hell blue chicken eggs come from.
Source: http://www.lespetitesgourmettes.com/recipes/…
September 9, 2013
... From an infection that generally only affects those who are immunocompromised.
*surprise*
:(
You all might remember me talking about Tommy Morrison:
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing: Round 2
HIV-1, HIV Denial, and boxing: Round 3
Morrison died last week, at the age of…
September 3, 2013
Poor Arnie.
As much as Ive disliked writing my dissertation, hes disliked it more.
SO BORED.
So as I am trying to write, I either get Cute Bored Arnie:
Or Creepy Bored Arnie:
Ive been sitting at the kitchen table to write. If I look over my right shoulder, those glowing eyes are literally what I…
July 23, 2013
The best mysteries are ones where the reader, if they are following along carefully, can figure out the answer to the problem as the lead characters do.
If you read science blogs and love evolution, then you know exactly where this is headed:
Molecular evolution in court: analysis of a large…
July 14, 2013
In light of this news, lots of people are wondering: "If bone marrow transplants 'cure' HIV, why not give everyone with HIV bone marrow transplants...?"
Well, why not?
Certainly the process is not easy or cheap. When I first wrote about this in 2008 (!!!), I mentioned that there is no way this…
July 7, 2013
Over 9000 emails about this bit of news:
Bone marrow 'frees men of HIV drugs'
I actually wrote about this duo almost exactly a year ago. If you want to know more about the science of what is going on, click here:
Two more HIV-1 patients kind of sort of cured-ish maybe
The only new bit to add to the…
June 21, 2013
If you havent bought your ticket to this years FreeOK, do so ASAP! Theyre in serious danger of selling out this year! This also means that you should get to the event early, because if they are close to selling out, it also means it will be hard to get rows of seats together, if youre coming in a…
June 20, 2013
I mean, its hard to get get more 'alternative' than a GMO HIV virus, rite?
A million people have been forwarding me a link to this unbelievable story:
Its totally true, and its something Ive written about here at ERV before. It is incredible.
The day Im waiting for, is when this 'incredible'…
June 3, 2013
Michael Douglass recently announced that his battle with throat cancer was instigated by HPV.
We have known for a long time that males can benefit from the HPV vaccine series. I wrote this back in 2011:
CDC recommends HPV vaccine for boys!
It would be great, for women, if boys got the vaccine too.…