This is a lecture for my Summer 2012 Medical Ethics Course at Bowling Green State University. It focuses on ethical issues related to genetic interventions, particularly whether the distinction between treatment and enhancement is ethically useful.
This is a lecture for my Summer 2012 Medical Ethics Course at Bowling Green State University. It focuses on ethical issues related to genetic interventions, particularly whether the distinction between treatment and enhancement is ethically useful.
Justin Bowra - The elephant in the living room
Justin Bowra takes a break from ultrasound to broach the uncool but crucial subject of health care economics.
Health care spending make up a large proportion of the budgets of OECD nations, and it is increasing in relation to GDP. This is an unsustainable situation and something has got to give.
In part 1 of Justin’s talk, he asks the question, where is the money going? The commonly asserted points of the aging population, better medical treatments, litigation and corporatisation of health care contribute. Justin argues, however, that the biggest problem is the system itself. To acknowledge the elephant in the living room is to acknowledge that we as doctors contribute to the problem, but we also have the greatest responsibility to be part of the solution.
In part 2, Justin briefly discusses ways in which the system can be fixed. He touches on taming special interests, shared decision making, surrendering autonomy and to look at the big picture - remembering that what we do for each individual patient has consequences for everyone else.
Rapid response systems (RRSs) have become a routine part of the way patients are managed in general wards of acute care hospitals. They have been adopted by national health and safety organisations in North America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia and are increasingly being used in other parts of the world.
Studies have almost universally shown significant reductions in outcome indicators such as mortality (up to one third) and cardiac arrest rates (up to 50%). However the validity of these outcomes is questionable as most of these studies are single-centre, before-and-after studies conducted by one or two clinical champions in Rapid Response.
This presentation reveals that the implementation of an Intensivist led Rapid Response Team in an Australian quaternary hospital did not demonstrate such dramatic results. In fact, after one year of service the standardised mortality ratio and the in-hospital cardiac arrest rate remained similar.
The presentation explores some of the operational impacts of a RRS including the replacement of critical thinking with reliance on protocols and the progressive super-specialisation of medical teams. Despite these impacts and relatively static patient outcome data, the service has rapidly become an integral part of the hospital.
Barriers between Intensive Care and ward staff have broken down and quality outcome results have consistently shown ward nurses and doctors feel better prepared, educated and supported in managing clinical deterioration. These surprising results raise the question; should we place more value in quality outcomes?
ABSTRACT
Gene therapy is the introduction of genes into existing cells to prevent or cure a wide range of diseases. It is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development. The first approved gene therapy experiment occurred on September 14, 1990 in US when Ashanti DeSilva was treated for ADA-SCID. Gene therapy is designed to introduce genetic material into cells to compensate for abnormal genes or to make a beneficial protein. If a mutated gene causes a necessary protein to be faulty or missing, gene therapy may be able to introduce a normal copy of the gene to restore the function of the protein. A gene that is inserted directly into a cell usually does not function. 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 when used in people. Some types of virus, such as retroviruses, integrate their genetic material (including the new gene) into a chromosome in the human cell. Other viruses, such as adenoviruses, introduce their DNA into the nucleus of the cell, but the DNA is not integrated into a chromosome.
Gene therapy have the potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. A breakthrough may come anytime and a day may come when almost every disease will have a gene therapy.
In medicine, gene therapy (also called human gene transfer) is the therapeutic delivery of nucleic acid into a patient's cells as a drug to treat disease.[ The first attempt at modifying human DNA was performed in 1980 by Martin Cline, but the first successful nuclear gene transfer in humans, approved by the National Institutes of Health, was performed in May 1989.[2] The first therapeutic use of gene transfer as well as the first direct insertion of human DNA into the nuclear genome was performed by French Anderson in a trial starting in September 1990.
This PowerPoint program discusses Designer babies. This 26-slide presentation mentions topics like sex selection and prenatal genetic diagnosis, and discusses scientific benefit and possible harms. Undergraduate students in medicine will enjoy this presentation.
This is a lecture I put together as part of a Medical Ethics course that I am teaching at Bowling Green State University this summer. It is about ethical issues related to genetic screening and counseling, and prenatal genetic diagnosis.
Justin Bowra - The elephant in the living room
Justin Bowra takes a break from ultrasound to broach the uncool but crucial subject of health care economics.
Health care spending make up a large proportion of the budgets of OECD nations, and it is increasing in relation to GDP. This is an unsustainable situation and something has got to give.
In part 1 of Justin’s talk, he asks the question, where is the money going? The commonly asserted points of the aging population, better medical treatments, litigation and corporatisation of health care contribute. Justin argues, however, that the biggest problem is the system itself. To acknowledge the elephant in the living room is to acknowledge that we as doctors contribute to the problem, but we also have the greatest responsibility to be part of the solution.
In part 2, Justin briefly discusses ways in which the system can be fixed. He touches on taming special interests, shared decision making, surrendering autonomy and to look at the big picture - remembering that what we do for each individual patient has consequences for everyone else.
Rapid response systems (RRSs) have become a routine part of the way patients are managed in general wards of acute care hospitals. They have been adopted by national health and safety organisations in North America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia and are increasingly being used in other parts of the world.
Studies have almost universally shown significant reductions in outcome indicators such as mortality (up to one third) and cardiac arrest rates (up to 50%). However the validity of these outcomes is questionable as most of these studies are single-centre, before-and-after studies conducted by one or two clinical champions in Rapid Response.
This presentation reveals that the implementation of an Intensivist led Rapid Response Team in an Australian quaternary hospital did not demonstrate such dramatic results. In fact, after one year of service the standardised mortality ratio and the in-hospital cardiac arrest rate remained similar.
The presentation explores some of the operational impacts of a RRS including the replacement of critical thinking with reliance on protocols and the progressive super-specialisation of medical teams. Despite these impacts and relatively static patient outcome data, the service has rapidly become an integral part of the hospital.
Barriers between Intensive Care and ward staff have broken down and quality outcome results have consistently shown ward nurses and doctors feel better prepared, educated and supported in managing clinical deterioration. These surprising results raise the question; should we place more value in quality outcomes?
ABSTRACT
Gene therapy is the introduction of genes into existing cells to prevent or cure a wide range of diseases. It is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development. The first approved gene therapy experiment occurred on September 14, 1990 in US when Ashanti DeSilva was treated for ADA-SCID. Gene therapy is designed to introduce genetic material into cells to compensate for abnormal genes or to make a beneficial protein. If a mutated gene causes a necessary protein to be faulty or missing, gene therapy may be able to introduce a normal copy of the gene to restore the function of the protein. A gene that is inserted directly into a cell usually does not function. 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 when used in people. Some types of virus, such as retroviruses, integrate their genetic material (including the new gene) into a chromosome in the human cell. Other viruses, such as adenoviruses, introduce their DNA into the nucleus of the cell, but the DNA is not integrated into a chromosome.
Gene therapy have the potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. A breakthrough may come anytime and a day may come when almost every disease will have a gene therapy.
In medicine, gene therapy (also called human gene transfer) is the therapeutic delivery of nucleic acid into a patient's cells as a drug to treat disease.[ The first attempt at modifying human DNA was performed in 1980 by Martin Cline, but the first successful nuclear gene transfer in humans, approved by the National Institutes of Health, was performed in May 1989.[2] The first therapeutic use of gene transfer as well as the first direct insertion of human DNA into the nuclear genome was performed by French Anderson in a trial starting in September 1990.
This PowerPoint program discusses Designer babies. This 26-slide presentation mentions topics like sex selection and prenatal genetic diagnosis, and discusses scientific benefit and possible harms. Undergraduate students in medicine will enjoy this presentation.
This is a lecture I put together as part of a Medical Ethics course that I am teaching at Bowling Green State University this summer. It is about ethical issues related to genetic screening and counseling, and prenatal genetic diagnosis.
The leaflet aims at providing general objective information on genetic tests, including their nature and the potential implications of their results. It presents the different types of tests available, their applications in the medical field and the extent and limit of the significance of the information resulting from these tests.
More information - www.coe.int/bioethics
Nutraceutical market, scope and growth: Herbal drug technologyLokesh Patil
As consumer awareness of health and wellness rises, the nutraceutical market—which includes goods like functional meals, drinks, and dietary supplements that provide health advantages beyond basic nutrition—is growing significantly. As healthcare expenses rise, the population ages, and people want natural and preventative health solutions more and more, this industry is increasing quickly. Further driving market expansion are product formulation innovations and the use of cutting-edge technology for customized nutrition. With its worldwide reach, the nutraceutical industry is expected to keep growing and provide significant chances for research and investment in a number of categories, including vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and herbal supplements.
Cancer cell metabolism: special Reference to Lactate PathwayAADYARAJPANDEY1
Normal Cell Metabolism:
Cellular respiration describes the series of steps that cells use to break down sugar and other chemicals to get the energy we need to function.
Energy is stored in the bonds of glucose and when glucose is broken down, much of that energy is released.
Cell utilize energy in the form of ATP.
The first step of respiration is called glycolysis. In a series of steps, glycolysis breaks glucose into two smaller molecules - a chemical called pyruvate. A small amount of ATP is formed during this process.
Most healthy cells continue the breakdown in a second process, called the Kreb's cycle. The Kreb's cycle allows cells to “burn” the pyruvates made in glycolysis to get more ATP.
The last step in the breakdown of glucose is called oxidative phosphorylation (Ox-Phos).
It takes place in specialized cell structures called mitochondria. This process produces a large amount of ATP. Importantly, cells need oxygen to complete oxidative phosphorylation.
If a cell completes only glycolysis, only 2 molecules of ATP are made per glucose. However, if the cell completes the entire respiration process (glycolysis - Kreb's - oxidative phosphorylation), about 36 molecules of ATP are created, giving it much more energy to use.
IN CANCER CELL:
Unlike healthy cells that "burn" the entire molecule of sugar to capture a large amount of energy as ATP, cancer cells are wasteful.
Cancer cells only partially break down sugar molecules. They overuse the first step of respiration, glycolysis. They frequently do not complete the second step, oxidative phosphorylation.
This results in only 2 molecules of ATP per each glucose molecule instead of the 36 or so ATPs healthy cells gain. As a result, cancer cells need to use a lot more sugar molecules to get enough energy to survive.
Unlike healthy cells that "burn" the entire molecule of sugar to capture a large amount of energy as ATP, cancer cells are wasteful.
Cancer cells only partially break down sugar molecules. They overuse the first step of respiration, glycolysis. They frequently do not complete the second step, oxidative phosphorylation.
This results in only 2 molecules of ATP per each glucose molecule instead of the 36 or so ATPs healthy cells gain. As a result, cancer cells need to use a lot more sugar molecules to get enough energy to survive.
introduction to WARBERG PHENOMENA:
WARBURG EFFECT Usually, cancer cells are highly glycolytic (glucose addiction) and take up more glucose than do normal cells from outside.
Otto Heinrich Warburg (; 8 October 1883 – 1 August 1970) In 1931 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for his "discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme.
WARNBURG EFFECT : cancer cells under aerobic (well-oxygenated) conditions to metabolize glucose to lactate (aerobic glycolysis) is known as the Warburg effect. Warburg made the observation that tumor slices consume glucose and secrete lactate at a higher rate than normal tissues.
Seminar of U.V. Spectroscopy by SAMIR PANDASAMIR PANDA
Spectroscopy is a branch of science dealing the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflect spectroscopy in the UV-VIS spectral region.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is an analytical method that can measure the amount of light received by the analyte.
Richard's entangled aventures in wonderlandRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
Deep Behavioral Phenotyping in Systems Neuroscience for Functional Atlasing a...Ana Luísa Pinho
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides means to characterize brain activations in response to behavior. However, cognitive neuroscience has been limited to group-level effects referring to the performance of specific tasks. To obtain the functional profile of elementary cognitive mechanisms, the combination of brain responses to many tasks is required. Yet, to date, both structural atlases and parcellation-based activations do not fully account for cognitive function and still present several limitations. Further, they do not adapt overall to individual characteristics. In this talk, I will give an account of deep-behavioral phenotyping strategies, namely data-driven methods in large task-fMRI datasets, to optimize functional brain-data collection and improve inference of effects-of-interest related to mental processes. Key to this approach is the employment of fast multi-functional paradigms rich on features that can be well parametrized and, consequently, facilitate the creation of psycho-physiological constructs to be modelled with imaging data. Particular emphasis will be given to music stimuli when studying high-order cognitive mechanisms, due to their ecological nature and quality to enable complex behavior compounded by discrete entities. I will also discuss how deep-behavioral phenotyping and individualized models applied to neuroimaging data can better account for the subject-specific organization of domain-general cognitive systems in the human brain. Finally, the accumulation of functional brain signatures brings the possibility to clarify relationships among tasks and create a univocal link between brain systems and mental functions through: (1) the development of ontologies proposing an organization of cognitive processes; and (2) brain-network taxonomies describing functional specialization. To this end, tools to improve commensurability in cognitive science are necessary, such as public repositories, ontology-based platforms and automated meta-analysis tools. I will thus discuss some brain-atlasing resources currently under development, and their applicability in cognitive as well as clinical neuroscience.
Richard's aventures in two entangled wonderlandsRichard Gill
Since the loophole-free Bell experiments of 2020 and the Nobel prizes in physics of 2022, critics of Bell's work have retreated to the fortress of super-determinism. Now, super-determinism is a derogatory word - it just means "determinism". Palmer, Hance and Hossenfelder argue that quantum mechanics and determinism are not incompatible, using a sophisticated mathematical construction based on a subtle thinning of allowed states and measurements in quantum mechanics, such that what is left appears to make Bell's argument fail, without altering the empirical predictions of quantum mechanics. I think however that it is a smoke screen, and the slogan "lost in math" comes to my mind. I will discuss some other recent disproofs of Bell's theorem using the language of causality based on causal graphs. Causal thinking is also central to law and justice. I will mention surprising connections to my work on serial killer nurse cases, in particular the Dutch case of Lucia de Berk and the current UK case of Lucy Letby.
A brief information about the SCOP protein database used in bioinformatics.
The Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database is a comprehensive and authoritative resource for the structural and evolutionary relationships of proteins. It provides a detailed and curated classification of protein structures, grouping them into families, superfamilies, and folds based on their structural and sequence similarities.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE SAMPLE RETURN.Sérgio Sacani
The return of a sample of near-surface atmosphere from Mars would facilitate answers to several first-order science questions surrounding the formation and evolution of the planet. One of the important aspects of terrestrial planet formation in general is the role that primary atmospheres played in influencing the chemistry and structure of the planets and their antecedents. Studies of the martian atmosphere can be used to investigate the role of a primary atmosphere in its history. Atmosphere samples would also inform our understanding of the near-surface chemistry of the planet, and ultimately the prospects for life. High-precision isotopic analyses of constituent gases are needed to address these questions, requiring that the analyses are made on returned samples rather than in situ.
2. Introduction
Gene therapy is used to treat a disease by
taking out the mutated gene, replacing it, or
introducing a new gene to body.
It is promising for some disease including:
- inherited disorders
- some types of cancer
- and certain viral infections
The techniques are risky and still under study.
One major money contributor to gene therapy is
Michael J. Fox (Back To The Future).
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his mid-20s.
3. How Does It Work?
A gene cannot be inserted directly in to a cell (it
will not function). So instead scientists use
another transporter called a vector. Certain
viruses are used as vectors by infecting the cell.
A vector can be injected or given by IV.
5. Why Is It Contreversial?
Because gene therapy is contreversial because involves making
changes to the body’s set of instructions, it raises ethical issues.
Here are some examples:
-How can the difference from good or bad uses of gene therapy be
distinguished?
-Who decides what traits are normal and what is a disability or disorder?
-Could the widespread use of gene therapy make society less accepting
of
people who are different (not using gene therapy)?
The only current type of gene therapy is for bone marrow and blood cells.
Types now in development are for the altering of sex cells. It is called
germline gene therapy. This may save a family from have a certain type of
disorder in the future, but it is unknown whether it will cause defects in the
fetus. The US government does not give funds for germline gene therapy
because of the ethical concerns.
6. Discussion
1. Is gene therapy ethical? And Why?
2. If your child has some sort of inherited disorder, would you
use gene therapy to fix the disorder?
7. Our Point of View
We both have mixed views on gene therapy. Javi thinks that it is ethical because
you are allowing a person to not live with the disorder they were born with.
Matt thinks that it is unethical because it is changing who you are and how God made
you .
