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
June 2, 2013
Some folks have been worried about me, so I thought Id write this post to mention that I am okay, Arnie is okay, everything is okay with me.
In the seven years Ive lived in OK, Ive been though a lot of storms. Its only been bad enough for me to come to work (I live close to work, work has an…
May 7, 2013
I cannot deal with the fact Tasmanian Devils are being driven to extinction by a contagious, untreatable cancer. I cannot deal with it. Click on the first link to see the science behind the tragedy:
Numbers arent enough
Click on the second link to see why I cannot deal with this, psychologically:…
April 28, 2013
*sigh*
*heaviersigh*
One of the many problems we have when treating HIV patients is that HIV can hide (latent). So a cell can be infected with HIV, but not show any signs of being infected. The HIV provirus is just chillin in the host cell DNA, not making any viral proteins/babby viruses, so the…
April 21, 2013
The HPV vaccine works!
Genital warts in young Australians five years into national human papillomavirus vaccination programme: national surveillance data.
In Australia, they started vaccinating girls/women against HPV in 2007.
In 2007, 11.5% of women under 21 (age-range most likely to get the…
April 14, 2013
Craig Venter gets it.
He gets it.
I wish I had 5 minutes to talk to him. I dont. But we do have this ~21 min vid where he talks about some of the innovative things he and his crew are working on (phage therapy, faster ways to make influenza vaccines).
True Revolution in Medicine
(Im dissertation…
April 8, 2013
There is another new bird flu.
H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Reach 21 In China; Death Total Unchanged At Six
More bird flu cases reported in China
New deadly bird flu virus infects at least 20 in China
The NPR article is quite good:
Human Cases Of Bird Flu In China Draw Scrutiny
This 'bird flu' is not…
April 3, 2013
HA! A blog post by an Antarctic tourist about a paper studying the blogs of Antarctic tourists!
Being there: examining the behaviour of Antarctic tourists through their blogs
*Very* fun idea! If you want to know how tourists are behaving/interacting with environment and wildlife of Antarctica when…
April 1, 2013
Step 1-- Wooer makes some ridiculous claim about vaccines. This claim has no science supporting it, but it gets *worse*. There is actually not even a theoretical scientific framework where the claim could work. Claim is antiscience right out the gates.
Step 2-- Repeat wooer claim ad nauseum…
March 29, 2013
So I freaked out a couple weeks ago when the statistic came out that "28% of South African school girls are infected with HIV":
South Africa: 'Over 25% of schoolgirls HIV positive'
28 Percent Of South African Schoolgirls Have HIV Because Of 'Sugar Daddies,' Health Minister Says
The good news is…
March 27, 2013
*throwsapaperdown*
Reasons for Not Vaccinating Adolescents: National Immunization Survey of Teens, 2008-2010
Our findings across 3 years show that, even as clinicians are increasingly recommending HPV, increasing numbers of parents, >40% in 2010, do not intend to vaccinate their adolescent female…
March 25, 2013
Using a genetically modified HIV-1 to genetically modify leukemia patients T-cells to teach them how to kill the cancer?
YAWN!
Thats childs play, at this point.
Lets give those GMO viruses a real challenge.
Lets get them to fight a real bastard form of leukemia-- B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia…
March 22, 2013
The News in HIV the past few weeks has been the same message: Get people tested. Get people antiretrovirals.
It saves lives.
YAY!!!
KINDA! FOR NOW!
Test and Treat in Los Angeles: A mathematical model of the effects of test-and-treat for the MSM population in LA County.
This group of folks looked at…
March 20, 2013
In A Perfect World, everyone who was infected with HIV-1 would be tested and treated.
1-- People with access to antiretrovirals live longer.
Increases in Adult Life Expectancy in Rural South Africa: Valuing the Scale-Up of HIV Treatment
I really like the introductory paragraph to this paper:
For…
March 18, 2013
HIV-- Its a terrible game of chance.
Odds of HIV transmission are, superficially, rather low (its no measles). And, we can make the risk of transmission even lower various pro-active ways-- antiretroviral use to keep viral loads down in HIV+ people (especially in pregnant women about to give birth…
March 15, 2013
A few weeks ago, The Thinking Atheist was in town-- He gave us a sweet preview of the new video hes planning on officially unveiling at the American Atheists convention and signing copies of his new book "Deconverted". Beforehand, he set up some camera equipment and did quick impromptu interviews…
March 12, 2013
Hey! Skeptics within driving radius of Wichita!
This weekend is Skeptics of Oz 2013!
Here is their Facebook page!
Here is their schedule of speakers!
And here is a list of speakers with brief bios written up by Skeptics of Oz speaker and fellow Oklahomian Caleb Lack!
March 11, 2013
I really hate blogging on non-published information, but for the second time in as many weeks, we have had interesting information come out of CROI. This bit of news isnt as exciting. It pretty much confirms my annoyed Debbie Downer stance on using antiretrovirals in non-infected individuals as a…
March 6, 2013
This year, we have had some educational moments in HIV/AIDS treatment.
1. A paper Ive been meaning to blog about demonstrated that the sooner an HIV+ individual starts antiretroviral therapy, the better. Ideally, <4 months after infection:
Enhanced CD4+ T-Cell Recovery with Earlier HIV-1…
March 3, 2013
Okay, I have a 'reputation' on the internet. You hear some wonderful news via Google alerts or on the MSN homepage about some FANTASTIC breakthrough with HIV... and then you come to ERV to come crashing back to reality. So, you might have heard about the kid who 'got cured of HIV infection'...…
March 1, 2013
Another day, another disease treatment strategy based off a genetically modified virus!
Prostate Specific Antigen Retargeted Recombinant Newcastle Disease Virus for Prostate Cancer Virotherapy.
This one is so clever, you guys. It is so freaking clever!
Some of you might know that sometimes, when…
February 26, 2013
A 12-year-old girl with sickle cell anemia in Saudi Arabia just got a blood transfusion that was tainted with HIV.
In response, some politicians were fired/fined.
Problem solved.
*blink*
Except the 'problem' of HIV in Islamic countries wasnt caused by some administrative oversight.
There are no gay…
February 25, 2013
Last week, The Thinking Atheist interviewed psychologist/blog cousin Caleb Lack, the president of OKC Atheists Red McCall, and me.
After seeing the videos Seth made for Caleb, I AM SCARED TO DEATH.
CALEBS VIDS ARE SO GOOD.
I didnt say anything nearly that eloquent or interesting!
:-|
And DAMN Seth…
February 18, 2013
This is ridiculous. After all of the papers I have read, written about, the new stuff we can do with GMO viruses...I can still be amazed. This is insane:
Randomized dose-finding clinical trial of oncolytic immunotherapeutic vaccinia JX-594 in liver cancer
The patients in this study had liver cancer…
February 15, 2013
This idea... this idea might be absolute genius...
Immunogenicity of bivalent human papillomavirus DNA vaccine using human endogenous retrovirus envelope-coated baculoviral vectors in mice and pigs.
The 'best' vaccines are live attenuated vaccines. Weakened/Misadapted viruses that can replicate a…
February 14, 2013
The connection between ERVs and placentas is already well established.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the ability of mammals to generate placentas was, in part, accomplished by domesticating an endogenous retroviral env protein. In humans, we call this protein syncytin, or ERVWE1.
This new paper in…
February 13, 2013
Here is a nice open access review article on ERVs and their association with cancer:
Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer prevention: evidence and prospects
While thats wonderfully interesting, what I want to focus on is a bit at the end. More information I have never heard before--
An amino…
February 12, 2013
I was actually unaware of this-- But melanoma is Yet Another Disease that has been associated with wayward ERV transcription and translation. Scientists have found inappropriate ERV RNA, protein, and anti-ERV antibodies in melanoma patients.
This is the first paper to break down 'melanoma' into…
February 11, 2013
ERMAHGERD! IM GONNA TALK ABOUT ERVS ALL WEEK!!!
I have a love/hate relationship with the ERV-[insert brain/CNS disorder] 'connection'. Labs from all over the world, with independent protocols and patient cohorts, see there is something going on with, for example, ERVs and multiple sclerosis. So…
February 8, 2013
I dont know why he took it down, but Ricky Gervais Tweeted the following a few days ago:
Any virologists or medical experts out there? What WOULD win out of AIDS & Rabies?
Maybe he took it down because he thought it was insensitive or something, but I think its a totally normal, valid question…
February 6, 2013
I recently got to chat with the guys of Skeptiles this weekend about viruses, vaccines/anti-vaxers, HIV, HepC, Creationists-- We were all over the place, and it was so much fun!
Skeptiles: Episode 21 – Abbie Smith