2009 Olympus BioScapes Images
The winners of the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Photo Digital Imaging Competition were just announced yesterday. Here are some of the wonderful winning and honorable mention images:
1st Place Winner:
Water flea Daphnia atkinsoni. This specimen has a "crown of thorns," a defensive trait induced in offspring only when the parents sense chemical cues released by one of their main predators, the tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis. The water flea´s exoskeleton (exterior structure, green) and subcellular details within the organism (nuclei – tiny blue dots) are both visible – Dr. Jan Michels, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany.
5th Place Winner:
Unicellular alga Penium, treated with the microtubule poison oryzalin – by David Domozych, Skidmore College.
Ma. Ivy Clemente of Pulilan, Philippines, got an honorable mention in this year’s competition, but I think her entry is the most stunning. Behold, the cancer alphabet:
Spelling out the diagnosis: Glandular structures from fibroadenoma and nodular prostatic hyperplasia cases – by Ma. Ivy Clemente, Pulilan, Philippines
Fetal cat coronal section – by Mike Peres, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
Squid embryo – by Rachel Fink, Mount Holyoke College, Massachussetts
Link: Winners Gallery of the 2009 Olympus BioScapes
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6-Year-Old Girl with Brain Cancer Hid Love Notes for Her Parents to Find After Her Death
When 6-year-old Elena Desserich was diagnosed with brain cancer, she began hiding hundreds of little love notes around the house for her parents to find after she was gone. Here’s the story:
Just before her sixth birthday, Elena Desserich (right) was diagnosed with brain cancer and given 135 days to live. She lived 255 days, passing away in 2007. After her death, Elena’s parents, Brooke and Keith, found hundreds of notes from Elena hidden around the house — in between CD cases, between bookshelves, in dresser drawers, in backpacks….
"It just felt like a little hug from her, like she was telling us she was looking over us"
Elena left hundreds of notes like these:
Elena’s parents, Brooke and Keith Desserich, have now published these notes in a book called Notes Left Behind to fund a non-profit organization The Cure Starts Now dedicated to fighting pediatric brain cancer.
Link to story (book excerpt) over at Today | The Love Notes | Official Website
Ah, this broke my heart, but the story is too touching not to share. Excuse me while I, erhm, dry my eyes. Got dust in ‘em or something.
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Naked Mole Rats Immune to Cancer
There has never been a documented case of cancer found in a Naked Mole Rat, which is unusual as they can live to be 30 years old. Now biologists at the Unversity of Rochester believe they have found the reason.
The findings, presented in today’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat’s cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells “claustrophobic,” stopping the cells’ proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells’ growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous.
“We think we’ve found the reason these mole rats don’t get cancer, and it’s a bit of a surprise,” say Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov, professors of biology at the University of Rochester and lead investigators on the discovery. “It’s very early to speculate about the implications, but if the effect of p16 can be simulated in humans we might have a way to halt cancer before it starts.”
Further research might reveal whether the findings will be applicable to humans. Link -via reddit
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Fighting Cancer With ... Mustache!
Asylum blog brought to our attention not one, but two strangely awesome fundraising efforts benefiting cancer foundations. All you’ve got to do is grow a mustache (which is sadly one of those things I can’t do to save my life – darn these Asian genes!) and get people to donate:
Would you like to participate? You’ve got two choices:
1. Mustaches vs. Cancer starts October 5 and lasts for 56 days. Proceeds go to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
2. Movember goes throughout November, with money raised benefiting prostate and testicular cancer foundations.
All you have to do is register with your charity of choice and ask friends and family to donate money to see pictures of you looking increasingly more awesome. If you decide to participate in either charity, check back in at Asylum later this month for free swag and contests. Also, whether or not you participate, you’re invited to the Stache Bash.
Link – Thanks Alex!
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New Breathalyzer Can Detect Lung Cancer
Israeli scientists have invented a breathalyzer-type device that can detect chemical markers for lung cancer in a patient’s breaths.
The sensor relies on a film of gold nanoparticles, which conducts electricity, layered over a carbon-based substrate. When a patient breathes into the device, particulates in the breath accumulate on the carbon layer and the sensor swells pushing the gold nanoparticles further apart, which, in turn, alters the resistance of the film. Each type of particulate has a unique effect on the resistance which can be measured by having a current flow through the sensor. “The user gets a figure on the device’s display panel that indicates whether the person is healthy or has cancer” [Physics World], says lead researcher Hossam Haick.
The new device can detect smaller amounts of the target chemicals and therefore diagnose lung cancer earlier, when treatments can be more successful. Link
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Ultrasound Brain Surgery
(YouTube Link)
A biotech company named InSightec is developing a surgical technique that uses focused ultrasound waves instead of scalpels to destroy tumors:
Machinery like this had previously been used to treat some cancers, for example in the uterus and breast. But until now, the distorting effects brought about by the skull’s thickness has made it impossibly tricky to focus the beams onto the brain while also maintaining the required accuracy.
InSightec’s technology solves that by using over a thousand individually focused transducers, which broadcast the ultrasonic beams. But it’s not like shooting a laser into a person’s head–rather, the beams raise the temperature of the location being treated by about forty degrees, or just enough to kill the diseased cells. A built-in cooling system keeps the brain from
cooking like an eggoverheating.
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Calorie Restriction Leads to Longer, Healthier Life
Results from a 20 year study on monkeys and their diets show that eating fewer calories can help you live longer. Animals with a restricted diet of 30% were shown to outlive those that were given the freedom to eat what when and how much they wanted. The monkeys also had improved chances of avoiding age related diseases, cancer, diabetes and brain atrophy.
In terms of overall animal health, Weindruch notes, the restricted diet leads to longer lifespan and improved quality of life in old age. “There is a major effect of caloric restriction in increasing survival if you look at deaths due to the diseases of aging,” he says.
The incidence of cancerous tumors and cardiovascular disease in animals on a restricted diet was less than half that seen in animals permitted to eat freely. Remarkably, while diabetes or impaired glucose regulation is common in monkeys that can eat all they want, it has yet to be observed in any animal on a restricted diet. “So far, we’ve seen the complete prevention of diabetes,” says Weindruch.
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Pixar Grants Last Wish
10-year-old Colby Curtin of Huntington Beach, California had been anxiously looking forward to the movie Up since she saw the first previews. Colby battled vascular cancer for three years, and when the movie was released, she was too sick to go to the theater.
After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.
The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.
The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.
Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.
Be warned, reading the entire story will make you cry. Pixar declined to make a statement about Colby or the employee who visited her. Link -via Boing Boing
(image credit: Carole Lynch)
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Daughter Helps Dad Fight Cancer ... By Breastfeeding Him!
After her father Tim was diagnosed with colon cancer, Georgia Browne went on the Internet to research ways to help save him. That’s where she got a brilliant though a bit unconventional idea to feed her dad breastmilk:
Georgia recalls. ‘I started researching on the internet immediately and found separate studies in America and Scandinavia both supporting the health benefits of breastmilk to cancer sufferers.
‘I watched the documentary and thought it was a really mad idea, if it was true,’ she says. ‘I started looking on the net and found research suggesting breastmilk helps kill cancer cells.
‘Finding out I could help was amazing. I could play my small part in helping my dad do something positive for his illness. ‘When I talked to him about it, he thought it was a great idea. He thought: “Why not?”’ [...]
With the family’s blessing, Georgia started expressing her milk for Tim straight away. She dropped the first batch round to her parents’ home in a freezer bag, which her mum popped in the freezer.
‘I thought he’d mix it into a milkshake like the man in the documentary, but when Mum defrosted it the next day, he simply poured it on his cornflakes with a splash of normal cow’s milk. He said it didn’t taste that different to cow’s milk, maybe just a bit sweeter if he didn’t get the mix right,’ Georgia says.
New Idea magazine has more: Link
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Tumor Angiogenesis Explained in Plain English
One of the way scientists try to combat cancer is to selectively disrupt angiogenesis, the process by which blood vessels form to support the growth of the tumor cells.
Biotech company Amgen launched a spiffy new website with 15 gorgeously rendered animations explaining the process of angiogenesis as it relates to vascularized tumor in plain English.
You don’t have to be a molecular biologist to appreciate the "Fantastic Voyage"-like animations – and you may learn something cool about cancer biology!
Not to be missed: Link – via Wired Science
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Cancer-sniffing Dog Saves Owner's Life
Maureen Burns in Rugby, England has a 10-year-old mixed breed collie named Max who probably saved her life. Max started actingly strangely, sniffing his owner’s breath and rubbing against her right breast.
Mrs. Burns discovered a lump but it did not show up on a hospital mammogram. She convinced doctors to do a biopsy and sure enough, the tumor was malignant.
She’s had surgery to remove the lump, followed by radiation treatment, and her prognosis is excellent. Mrs. Burns is convinced that she is alive today because of her dog’s keen sense of smell.
“It was his peculiar reaction that alerted me to the fact that something was wrong. At first I thought he was just getting old, he was not so playful and his eyes were sad. He’d sniff my breath in an odd way — I even asked my husband Roger if I had halitosis.”
– Maureen Burns
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Ironworkers Immortalize Kids
Children who receive treatment for cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are receiving a special treat while construction goes on outside. Children write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the window. Then ironworkers erecting the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care paint the names on steel beams and hoist them into place.
The building’s steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic – Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.
A similar project was carried out in 1996 when the Smith Research Laboratories were built. A movie was made at that time to raise money for The Jimmy Fund.
Yesterday, crawling on their stomachs in the bitter cold and whipping winds, the ironworkers looked down at the latest batch of names posted in the walkway window. Looking up at them were Kristen and her sisters, Cathryn, 5, and Hannah, 3, who have been accompanying her to chemotherapy. They pointed as the ironworkers painted the girls’ names onto the side of a 4-ton I-beam and hoisted it on to the seventh floor.
“She’ll always be a piece of this building, which is a good feeling to have,” Elizabeth Hoenshell said, holding Kristen. “They don’t have to do this, the guys. They could just do their job and do a good job at it and give us a building that we can get treatment at, but they go the extra step and that’s huge.”
Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -via Metafilter
See a video from the earlier project, but have your hankie ready. Link
(image credit: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
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Tractor Parade
Jacob Vanderlaan of Sussex, New Brunswick loved tractors. After he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the 9-year-old made his request to the Children’s Wish Foundation. He wanted to visit the John Deere factory in Moline, Illinois.
But the boy everyone knows as ‘Jake’ is too ill to travel, so the tractors came to him Friday as the extended family that is the farming community around Sussex organized a parade past the boy’s home as he lay on a folded-down seat at the living room window.
Wrapped in a fleece, farm-themed blanket, a stuffed cow on his lap, Jake shielded his eyes from the sun with a black cap in one hand, waving excitedly with the other at the familiar faces behind the wheels of the passing farm vehicles.
For one afternoon, the family was able to forget the cancer that mom Julie Vanderlaan described as “extremely aggressive”, which has left her son heavily medicated to fight through the pain.
Over 50 farmers rode tractors and other farm equipment to Jake’s home -they were the same farmers who had been helping the family in every way possible since Jacob’s illness was diagnosed.
“I never expected this,” Julie said. “People are offering to do anything they can, they are just showing up every day to help. It all means so much.
“It’s overwhelming. It just makes you so appreciative to be a part of this type of community.”
Jacob died the day after the tractor parade. Link -via Fark
(image credit: Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal)
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Little Man Made of Living Cancer Cells
Scientists have grown this Gumby/gingerbread man shape out of living human cancer cells!
The structure was grown using about 100,000 beads of the connective protein collagen, seeded with cells from a human liver cancer culture and tipped into a body-shaped mould. On the surface of each bead are cells of a type that secrete proteins and collagen that bind all the cells together.
Researchers are working to produce cell cultures that resemble organs in order to test new drugs. Link -via Culture Dish
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David Baird's 4115 km Wheelbarrow Journey
David Baird has just completed his Herculean 112-day journey pushing a wheelbarrow across Australia (that’s 4,115 km or 2,557 mi on foot). He did this to raise money for breast and prostate cancer research.
The fit looking 65-year-old said he was feeling ‘amazingly good’, considering he had traveled a massive 4115km on foot.
Taking in about 70 towns along the way, Mr Baird said he pushed the wheelbarrow for between 10 and 12 hours a day. [...]While he never had any doubts he wouldn’t complete his journey, he admitted each day “was hard”.
“My most concern was my survival with the traffic, he said. That was quite horrendous.”
(Photo: POST Newspaper Online)
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