Ask a scientist?

Recently we had to venture to a website called ask a scientist which is run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and ask a question pertaining to cells. Here is the question I posed and the answer I received. 

 

Question: I recently met with a dermatologist to be treated for psoriasis. He went over some of the newer treatments that are available. Up until now I have typically treated it in a topical fashion with creams and ointments. He was explaining some of the injections-biologics that are available. Biologics specifically target the immune system and are made from proteins of living cells (Psoriasis, 2009). The one he is thinking about putting me on he said was derived from human cells. He mentioned that some of the other ones that are available are a mix of human and another species, often mice. My question is how does introducing other species proteins into our body affect us over time? Are there any ill affects? What other species are we/can we use cells or parts of cells to treat certain diseases?

Answer: Follow up with the physician directly on the specifics of the recommended treatment. I am not sure which treatment they may have been referring to. There are quite a few human proteins that are used in treatment. They are not necessarily manufactured by human cells and the therapeutic protein may be made by bacteria, insect, mice, or even plant cells. Purification of the therapeutic protein is thus key.

One therapy that comes to mind that might be relevant is the use of monoclonal antibodies that bind to immune cells and can help temper an overactive immune system. The older antibodies were not completely human derived and the non-human derived regions could be immunogenic. The body starts to recognize the therapeutic protein as an invader and generates antibodies against it, thus preventing successful repeat treatments. We now have many different therapeutic antibodies, derived using recombinant DNA technologies, that are completely human-derived, and thus do not illicit an immune response.
Hope that helps.

Disclaimer:

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Ask a Scientist website provides a forum for teachers, students, and others to discuss biomedical topics with scientists. Participating scientists answer questions to the best of their knowledge. The information they provide is intended for educational purposes only. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute assumes no responsibility for the scientific accuracy of Ask a Scientist responses or for the content of references and Web links that may be provided in responses. Views expressed in Ask a Scientist responses are not necessarily those of HHMI.

So there you have it. I am still curious about biologics and where they are derived from. So I guess I have something new to study.

Web Presentation Tools

I have grown up with technology, I have been typing papers on computers since I was in high school and I have used PowerPoint and Excel as well in my academic career for presentations and science labs. In most cases I have self taught myself how to do things. I remember taking Calculus I as a summer course at a community college and there were quite a few adult learners, our professor had us use this computer program sometimes as part of the class and the my classmates were amazed at how well I picked it up when they smetimes struggled using it. Technology is constantly changing and being improved as the years go on, sometimes it is hard to keep up with it. I had no idea how many online presentation tools there were available.

Prezi reminds me very much of PowerPoint, but I find the controls to be a bit confusing. I believe if I were to play with it long enough that I would be able to control things better. One nice feature of having the presentation online is not having to carry a thumbdrive or have a certain computer that has software such as PowerPoint loaded to it. I had a thumb drive stolen from my laptop at school one year and it was never returned. However there are also downsides to having a presentation online as well. Our school sometimes has internet outages which are outside of our control and sometimes and it can be out for several days. This would leave me without a way to present my work to others if we were to have one of those happen. Also our school has been having some power outages as well and I would be afraid to lose my work if it the online program was not saving periodically. If I would using PowerPoint I could at least save it to my drive before the computer would have to be shut off since we do have battery backups connected to the computers which allow them to stay on for a little while. There are lots of tutorials and lessons available to help you with your Prezi presentation, that is very helpful. The most basi free version does not offer as many features as those you have to pay for. Also with the free version the storage is only 100MB. The enjoy version for $59 a year gives you 500MB a year allows you to make them private and use your own logo and the pro version for $159 a year gives you 2000MB storage and the ability to work offline. One nice this is that students and educators can receive the enjoy for free and the pro for only $59 a year. Overall it looks like an interesting online program, would just take a little getting used to the wheel that is used to design the pages.



Mybrainshark allows you to upload PowerPoints and then add voice. You can insert poll and surveys. You can share the presentation on facebook or other places including Youtube video. You can upload videos as well. You can add background music to a presentation. I think a tool like this would be nice to have if students missed a day of class. You could add the notes or other things you discussed during the various slides and they could view it at home or upon returning to class. Again the basic service is free. For the Pro 1 version it is $9.99 a month and allows you to identify viewers, share presentations privately, add passwords for security, and improve analysis with detailed view and reporting alerts. To me this seems  little bit simpler since you can upload a premade PowerPoint and then enhance it with other things. Another great tool to use and since it can be embedded on websites something very useful for a teacher to use.