When people have heart attacks, oxygen is cut off from the cells of the heart, called cardiomyocytes, and those cells consequently die. If this happened in the liver, the immune system would remove the dead cells and the surrounding cells would reproduce to replace them. But things are different in the heart. The immune system [...]
As you read this post remember that we love animals. We both dreamed of going to veterinary school one day, and we worked towards that goal until finding our love for research. With that love, we still accept that the use of model organisms is a critical component in advancing scientific research. It is not [...]
Today, we are taking a break from our normal introductory series post in order to take a stance against systemic racism and white supremacy within the United States. The recent events surrounding our country have left us appalled and frustrated. The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breanna Taylor and the numerous other individuals who [...]
As we mentioned in part 1 of our cancer introductory series, there are multiple types of cancer treatments including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. While these treatments have been around for a long period of time, they aren’t perfect. For example, chemotherapies take a pretty messy approach- imagine if the police were okay with killing a [...]
Welcome back to our third (and final) cancer introductory post. As you’ve probably learned, cancer is a very common, yet complex disease, which is one of the reasons we have devoted three introductory posts to the topic. Up to this point we’ve learned some vocabulary, separated facts from fiction, learned about preventative measures as well [...]
Having a mental illness can make you feel isolated and segregated, especially if you don’t have a good support system. While I know it is important to have friends and family to fall back on for support, I am also a huge advocate for professional help. In my mind, everyone could use a little therapy. [...]
Cancer Part 2- Cell cycle, oncogenes and tumor suppressors Last week we talked about the fugitive cells in our body that evade the police, gain a posse and take over. The way in which normal cells become cancer cells is through mutations. Mutations can be thought of as cancer drivers. Typically speaking, mutations can be [...]
Welcome back to our Mental Health Awareness mini-series! Today, we are going to be sharing a few anonymous personal stories from our authors and some of our fellow PhD students. We share these stories because we want everyone to know that they aren’t alone in battling mental health issues. As our first post indicated, millions [...]
Cancer Part One- An introduction CANCER. A six-letter word that can make your heart sink into your stomach. While everyone seems to be affected by cancer, either directly or indirectly, there seems to be confusion and misconceptions surrounding the disease. So here we will give a simplified definition of cancer, some basic facts, vocabulary terms, [...]
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. As a way to bring attention to mental health and to decrease the negative stigma, we will be bringing you a short series including the prevalence of people affected by mental health, the SCIENCE behind mental health, available resources and some personal stories because YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Please [...]
