Bacteriophage Therapy

My partner Abi Grassler and I made an visual infographic page on http://www.easel.ly about bacteriophage therapy. Bacteriophage therapy is a process in which phages can be inserted into cells in order to target a specific strain of bacteria and either change the bacteria or expel it from the organism. We focused on the benefits of bacteriophage therapy over antibiotics, which we depicted in a chart. We also provided two diagrams of a bacteriophage and bacteriophage viral replication. Check it out here!

Don’t Sneeze, Please!

It is winter time, and you know what that means: Cold Season! While being in the cold does not directly translate to getting the virus for the common cold, lower temperatures often weaken the immune disease, inhibiting the body from properly fighting off the virus. There are over 200 different viruses of the common cold which circulate, causing most people to catch the cold two to three times per year. The common cold viruses are transmitted through breathing in the aerosol droplets of the virus and by touching your face with something that touched a surface that the cold resided on.  I’m sure you’ve experienced it – the stuffy nose, itchy throat, runny eyes, and the all around feeling of grossness. You feel yucky, chances are you have to take off from school or work, and it just is generally not a good experience. So then, the real question is, how can I not catch the cold this cold season? Below are some tips as to how to prevent catching the common cold:

1. WASH YOUR HANDS!!! Wash your hands as frequently as possible to avoid transmitting the virus by touching surfaces.
2. Stay warm: keep your immune system strong and running by staying out of the cold and keeping your body temperature warm.
3. Don’t share drinks.
4. Cough into your elbow or arm.
5. Eat foods that are high in Vitamin C to boost your immune system.
6. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. In general, just avoid touching your face!
7. Bring hand sanitizer with you in case you can’t find a sink before eating.
8. Wear a medical mask. While you might think it looks silly, wearing a mask could be a good way to protect yourself from the virus.

Stay healthy!

Never, Ever Give Up!

In this TedTalk, Diana Nyad speaks to the public about her incredible journey; she swam 100 miles from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64. She is the first person ever to have made this swim, which is incredibly impressive. This had been Diana’s dream for a very long time, and it is amazing that she never gave up and worked until she accomplished this task, especially at her age. I love TedTalks in general, and this one was no exception. I found Diana’s speech to be very inspirational. Though I have no desire to even swim 1 mile (much less 100), I think her message is applicable to anyone who has a dream or a goal they want to achieve. I do not necessarily have a dream that I have been striving towards for years, but I have always wanted to become fluent in french. After five years of studying the language, I have definitely had my doubts about whether or not this goal could possibly be achieved. However, I know that as long as I keep trying, and make efforts to find new people to converse with and new vocabulary words to learn, I can achieve this goal – most likely before I am the age of 64! I am hoping to someday live in a french speaking country and become bilingual.

I think that Diana’s story is incredible. My favorite parts of her speech were the quotations she incorporated – especially the one from Socrates: “To be is to do”. This one line seems extremely simple and obvious – in order to be something or someone, you have to do what is required of that position or status. However, I think many people go through life thinking that they can just fake their way to their goal without actually having to work. This talk has impacted me by opening my eyes to this and reminding me that with big dreams comes big effort.

Here is the Diana Nyad’s Ted Talk! Make sure to microSCOPE it out! (ba doom tsss) http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_nyad_never_ever_give_up#t-800271

Works Cited:

Feydey. “File:Open Book Nae French Flag.png.” Wikimedia Commons, 7 Oct. 2011. Web. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_book_nae_French_flag.png&gt;.

Ebola and IDEO Challenge

We have been researching ways to help fight Ebola both inside and outside the classroom. For a project in class, I created an iMovie to educate others about the Ebola Virus:

We also participated in the IDEO challenge, which is an online challenge to contribute ideas to fight Ebola or at least suppress it. Here is a link to farther read about my idea to fight Ebola by fighting dehydration!

https://openideo.com/challenge/fighting-ebola/ideas/well-well-well-let-s-cure-ebola

What are your ideas to cure Ebola?

Cri du Chat Symposium

For the end of our first semester, we were assigned a symposium to research and make a presentation on a genetically-linked disease. My parter, Abi Grassler, and I chose Cri du Chat as our genetic syndrome. Cri du Chat is a syndrome resulted form a deleted portion of the 5P chromosome, resulting in mental retardation, speech impairment, and most distinctly a cry that sounds like the cry of a cat. To learn more about Cri du Chat and see our presentation, click here or on the following link!

http://voicethread.com/#u2842188.b6368121.i32909044