ALS
sa smith | October 9, 2015Theyre figuring out what the heck is going on in the saga of ERVs and ALS!
2011:
ERVs and ALS
2015:
Human endogenous retrovirus-K contributes to motor neuron disease
1-- Of the many ERVs in your genome, the ones they found activated in the brains of people with ALS are HERV-Ks, at two positions: one on chromosome 7 and one on chromosome 10. ERVs degrade a lot over time, but they could find transcripts for all the major retroviral proteins, gag, pol, and env.
Why is this important?
At first, they could only find activity from the chromosome 7 locus, only in some patients. HERV-K activity from…
cmonforton | December 31, 2014Individuals with chronic occupational exposure to lead have an 80 percent higher odds of developing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) than individuals who do not have the exposure. Those are the findings of a recently published meta-analysis of 13 studies of individuals with “Lou Gehrig’s disease" (ALS). The authors, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada for its National Population Health Study of Neurological Disease in Canada, note:
“Epidemiological studies investigating the association between prior exposure to lead and ALS began about five decades ago, after a series of ALS cases…
gregladen | September 21, 2014I am going to try to keep all the climate science ice bucket challenges here as they occur. At present there are quite a few individuals who have not yet answered the challenge. I'm sure they will. Some of them, in the Northern Hemisphere, may be waiting for it to get colder so the act becomes more meaningful.
Anyway, here's what we've got now. If I'm missing someone, please add a link in the comments!
It all started with Andy Lee Robinson "Arctic Sea Ice Death Spiral" challenge...
Andy donates to the Dark Snow Project and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, challenges David Rose,…
catdynamics | August 27, 2014In which Chris "Slick" Ford challenges me, and I accept.
In turn, I challenge Valerie, Diddi and Stefan.
You know who you are.
h/t to Sir Patrick Stewart for illustrating how to properly take on such challenges.
milhayser | March 23, 2014For the first time, researchers have transformed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into specialized bladder cells. Meanwhile the development of iPSCs from normal cells has been shown to depend on two proteins necessary for the induction of a glycolytic state. In order to make iPSCs, researchers have previously needed to collect significant amounts of skin, bone marrow, or blood from a donor, but researchers have demonstrated a new method that requires only a single drop of blood. In the future, you may be able to prick your finger, send a drop of blood to the lab, and have them grow a…
sa smith | March 8, 2011Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka Lou Gherigs disease. Pretty much sounds like hell, to me. Your mind is fine, while your body is collapsing around you-- slowly but surely paralyzing you, taking away your ability to eat and breathe, while your mind is fine and dandy so you are acutely aware of what is happening to you. If youre lucky, youre dead in 3 years. Not so lucky, it can go on for 6 or more. Terrifying.
What makes it even more terrifying, is that the vast, vast majority of people who develop ALS have no family history of it whatsoever. Wikipedia says 95%.
There is *a* drug for…
grrlscientist | February 4, 2010tags: health, medicine, TEDMED,health care, ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, technology, internet, Jamie Heywood, TEDTalks, streaming video
When Jamie Heywood's brother was diagnosed with ALS, he devoted his life to fighting the disease as well. The Heywood brothers built an ingenious website where people share and track data on their illnesses -- and they discovered that the collective data had enormous power to comfort, explain and predict.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the…
rskloot | May 17, 2009Speaking of the debate over patents interfering with medical care, there's a story in today's New York Times that mentions the drug Iplex, which has shown promise for treating Lou Gehrig's disease -- a deadly and thus far untreatable degenerative disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
From the article:
Iplex ... is believed to protect the motor neurons whose
death leads to paralysis in A.L.S. Some patients had persuaded their
doctors to prescribe the drug when the F.D.A. approved it in late 2006
for children with growth deficiencies. "I started on Tuesday," Debbie Gattoni…