The phone rings, but everyone pretends not to hear it because they are afraid of what they might hear. Clay’s weed trimmer is far too loud for him to hear the phone anyway, and Catherine is busy taking care of her toddler, Paul. Far away in Seattle at the University of Washington, Claire Redman, geneticist, is waiting for someone to answer the phone. She is calling to talk about a subject that is already very familiar to Catherine and Clay Johanson: cystic fibrosis. Their son, Paul, spent his second birthday in the hospital, fighting to survive despite the thick mucus that was filling his lungs. Presently, however, Paul is safe at home, enjoying a lunch of sweet potatoes and apple juice. He also happens to have a younger sibling on the way. Catherine is thirteen weeks pregnant, and the voice on the other end of the phone will tell her whether or not the new baby will also have the life threatening disease. The Johansons may soon have to make a life altering choice. The kind of choice that is only ever discussed in hurried whispers late at night over a cup of coffee. The kind of choice that determines life or death (McGee 1). Now enter the ivy engulfed brick buildings of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute Building. People in white coats are hard at work in a lab day in, and day out, under the command of a man named Dr. Jim Wilson. The goal: develop a biological breakthrough called a “vector” (McGee 3). Vectors are a means of getting genetic information into living cells. They are usually made of altered adenoviruses, such as one would get in a flu vaccination. Most scientists are very confident that this discovery will lead to a new medical breakthrough called “gene therapy.” Vectors such as these could potentially ... ... middle of paper ... ...gg’s. Now the egg is fertilized and can be called a zygote. This is the period of the process of conception during which the genes from both mother and father combine, creating and embryo made up of the full set of forty-six human chromosomes that may, eventually, become a human being (Silver 38). This is the point when prenatal genetic diagnosis would come into play. A doctor would look at the embryo’s genetic makeup and then use that information to determine if there are any potential diseases to diagnose (“Designer Babies”). As we now know, however, the technique can be used to “diagnose” a child with certain physical traits, let’s say the child’s genetic makeup shows that the baby will have brown hair but the parents wanted a child with blonde hair. That embryo could then be manipulated or destroyed to ensure that those parents will have a child with blonde hair.
Ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries and are especially relevant at all level of sport.1 Of all sports, the incidence of ankle sprain is higher in volleyball considering its non-contact nature.2 The most common ankle sprain occurs on the lateral or outside part of the ankle.3 Reports estimate that ankle sprains account for approximately 24% to 54% of all sport-related injuries and 23,000 persons get them per day in the United States.4
Arthur Bank, guest journalist for BioJournals, recently detailed that modifying viruses proves to be an effective w...
On July 2, 1962, the first Wal-Mart store opened in Arkansas, and over the next 50 years, Wal-Mart became a retail giant. Holding the title of the world’s largest employer, only comparable to the United States Department of Defense and Chinas Army, Wal-Mart employs over 2.1 million people. Sam Walton’s philosophy was low prices. Instead of offering good sales every once in a while, Walton offered an “always lower price” than competitors on things that ordinary people use every day. This philosophy continues to attract more than 140 million shoppers per week. This staggering amount of shoppers helped produce a revenue of $443billion for fiscal year 2012 alone (Matthews, 2012). With more than 6,000 stores in 14 countries, Wal-Mart produces remarkable revenue each year (Hesterly, 2010). With literally billions pouring into the company, one must assess how the money is controlled and if its accounted for by the best contemporary management techniques on the market. While Wal-Mart thrives on the use of benchmarketing and lean accounting, the Theory of Constraints paired with lean accounting could produce staggering results for Wal-Mart in terms of financial management.
Mary Wollstonecraft, a women’s rights advocate in the year 1792 summed it up perfectly when she said, “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” She is describing the fight within every woman in the Feminist Movement that began in the 1700’s and extended throughout the late 20th century. This powerful motion was a drive to address the debated issues of reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. As time has passed, feminists have pushed extremely hard to gain equal rights and respect from their male counterparts. Unfortunately in today’s world, society still puts an emphasis on a women’s exterior beauty. They emphasize it in magazines, television commercials, and even the infamous beauty pageant. The industry of beauty pageants is growing rapidly, jeopardizing the continuous work of many women’s rights advocates, throwing away the continuing efforts for equal rights (Miss America, 2011).
...y into a cell it usually will not function the desired way. Instead, a carrier called a vector is genetically engineered to deliver the gene. Certain viruses are often used as vectors because they can deliver the new gene by infecting the cell. The viruses are modified so they can’t cause disease and will not be fought off by the patient’s immune system. The vector can be injected or given by IV directly into a specific place in the patient’s body. The vector can also be introduced after , a sample of the patient’s cells are removed and exposed to the vector in a lab. The cells with the vector are then returned to the patient.
Viral vectors use viruses to transport a modified gene into a patient's body. They are right now be...
An author’s way of writing and portraying a character are one of the important things to note when reading a novel. Whether they use third or first person as their view point, have their main character have an underlying dark secret that is not revealed until the end of the novel. However an author wishes to write their novel, there is always a drawback to it. Kazuo Ishiguro’s way of writing his novel Never Let Me Go is in a first person perspective where the narrator, Kathy H., reassess her life of being a clone but the way Kathy remembers and discusses her memories of living in Hailsham is hindered by the fact she inputs her own feelings and thoughts into what happened in the past.
Molecular biologists have discovered many enzymes, which change the structure of DNA in living organisms. Some of these enzymes can cut and join strands of DNA. Using such enzymes, scientists learned to cut specific genes from DNA and to build customized DNA using these genes. They also learned about vectors, strands of DNA like viruses, which can infect a cell and insert themselves into its DNA. Scientists started to build vectors, which incorporated genes of their choosing and used vectors to insert these genes into the DNA of living organisms. Genetic engineers believe that they can improve the foods we eat by doing this. At first glance, this might look exciting to some people. Deeper consideration reveals some advantages and serious dangers.
“Perfection- a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable; especially the setting of unrealistically demanding goals accompanied by a disposition to regard failure to achieve them as unacceptable and a sign of personal worthlessness.” Medical Definition from Merriam-Webster.
The common statement “Beauty is pain” is something a girl would completely understand. We understand it and accept it because we know the final product of our hair, face or body will be worth whatever pain we put it through. Maybe there is truth to this statement because everyone has tried some kind of diet where we select the salad instead of that amazing cheeseburger. These sacrifices can be pretty painful, but we continue to give in knowing we will improve our overall health. Exercising, which is another sacrifice made to better our health, can also be extremely painful and any person that has ever gone on a hard run knows exactly what that pain is. But, in addition to getting your body in shape, running goes beyond toning and strengthening muscles or loosing a few pounds. Running has so many benefits that many people don’t even know about. As little as thirty minuets of running during the week can do wonders for a persons health. (Allen, 2014) That doesn’t sound too painful now, does it? In fact, running benefits a person’s mind, body, and age.
Gender – refers to the particular roles and relationship, personality traits, attitudes, behaviours and values that society ascribe to men and women; about learned differences between men and women.
There are multiple methods that are used to deliver the correct genetic material to the defective genes. One of the methods is to use a vector. Vec...
Every human aspires to overcome his limitations and live beyond the centuries. From childhood he had a deep rooted fantasy to become like his favorite superhero. We all, at a certain point in life have desired to become immortal and forever get rid of the diseases wrapping the human life. With so many day-by-day advancements in technology attaining a superhuman status is not going to be a dream anymore in near future. We would be more intelligent after our mergence with the technology. At the forefront of this advancement is gene technology which “attempts to treat disease at its origin on the molecular level"(Kreeger, 1996). "Essentially, this technology deliberately introduces genes into the human cells to compensate for aberrant genes that
Recent studies on parental involvement in education have found that there are many benefits for both the student and the adult when parents become involved in their children’s education. Without parent support, it is very difficult for a child to be motivated. From what I have seen growing up, only a small percentage of students are self-motivated, so it is absolutely vital that parents assist in the motivation process. I found this table to be particularly interesting and important.
With the goal of improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care, biomedical engineers design instruments, devices, and software. In spite of the power biomedical engineers carry, they are also left with a mountain of challenges. To overcome to the problem plenty of biomedical engineers are faced with today, Robert Langer, an American engineer and an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stated that certain methods are unacceptable owing to the fact that they are inhumane. Langer and his team were working on polymers that could deliver DNA as efficiently as viruses. The only problem with this procedure was that the viruses may have dangerous side effects and have been responsible for deaths in some gene-therapy trials. “So far, the problem has been that such "synthetic vectors" have been far less efficient in carrying out the delivery,” Langer states, “But in early tests. . . some polymers have been as effective at delivering the DNA strands to their target as the viruses, but with 100 times less toxicity” (Par. 9). Langer and his team were able to maneuver different techniques to avoid undesirable procedures so they may be tolerable to the