#biomarker study

[dermatology-cro]

[jcmarchi]

Unlocking history with geology and genetics

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/unlocking-history-with-geology-and-genetics/

Unlocking history with geology and genetics

Fatima Husain grew up in the heart of the Midwest, surrounded by agriculture. “Every time you left your home, you saw fields of corn and soybeans. And it was really quite beautiful,” she says. During elementary school, she developed her own love of gardening and cultivated a small plot in her family’s backyard.

“Having the freedom to make a mess, experiment, and see things grow was very impactful,” says Husain, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and a Hugh Hampton Young Fellow. This experimentation in the garden was the seed that blossomed into her fascination with science. “When you think about gardening and agriculture in Iowa,” she says, “you think about soil and its origins, which led me to geology and geochemistry and all these interdisciplinary fields that play a role in the Earth sciences.”

Husain has maintained that scientific curiosity throughout her academic career. As a graduate student in EAPS’ Program in Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology, she studies the fossil and genetic records of ancient and modern life forms to better understand the history of life on Earth. She says, “Twenty years ago, I was a stoked kid working with topsoil in Iowa. Now, I get to work with ancient dirt and sediments to better understand Earth and life’s past.” 

Sharing science

Though Husain loved her environmental science class in high school, when she enrolled at Brown University, she wasn’t sure which STEM major to pursue. Then, a guest lecture in her first-year biology course dispelled any uncertainty. “A professor walked on stage and introduced himself as a biogeochemist, and after that, everything just clicked,” she says. Within weeks of that fateful lecture, she had declared a major in geochemistry. “I’ve never looked back,” she says.

She then immersed herself in her Earth science classes, which applied the core science disciplines she studied to topics such as the oceans, weather and climate, and water quality. “I gained a sincere appreciation for the excellent teaching and writing that helped me access the world of the geosciences,” she says, “And that helped me realize the value in communicating science clearly.”

To hone her writing skills, Husain took nonfiction writing classes as her electives and joined one of the school newspapers. There, she took on the role of science writer and editor. As she neared graduation, she knew that she would eventually pursue geochemistry at the graduate level, but first she wanted to focus on journalism and writing. She reasoned that, if she could formally learn the fundamentals of science writing and reporting, then “I could more effectively share all the science I learned after that point,” she says. With the support of her undergraduate professors, she decided to apply to MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, one of the only such programs in the country.

The program refined Husain’s writing skills and paved the way for her to pursue science journalism opportunities across a variety of media, including print, video, podcasting, and radio. She worked as a writing intern for MIT News during this time, and has written a number of MIT News articles while at MIT. After graduating, she served as a Curiosity Correspondent for the MIT-Nord Anglia Education Collaboration based at the MIT Museum. In that role, she says, “I worked on communicating the amazing science happening here at MIT to K-12 students around the world via educational videos.” Since beginning her PhD studies, Husain has transitioned to a new role in the collaboration — hosting a monthly webinar series called MIT Abstracts, which connects MIT researchers and experts with an international audience of middle schoolers.

Along the way, Husain has also worked as a reporter and managing producer for a Rhode Island-based sustainability science radio show called Possibly. In 2019, she founded a podcast with her colleagues called BIOmarkers, which serves as an oral history project for the discipline of organic geochemistry.

Acquiring the “biggest tool set” possible

After completing her master’s thesis, Husain began to return to her roots in geochemistry. She says, “At some point, when I was interviewing other scientists and they described their experiments, I’d miss being in the lab myself. That feeling helped me realize the time was right to get back into research.” Husain chose to stay at MIT for her PhD. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity to continue working on challenging, interdisciplinary problems within such an exciting environment,” she says. “There really is no other place quite like it.”

She joined the lab group of Roger Summons, the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology. For her first project as a research assistant, Husain helped then-postdoc Ainara Sistiaga reconstruct the environment of Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge 1.7 million years into the past, using molecule-scale fossils preserved in archeological sediments. Part of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, the site preserves evidence of ancient hominin tools and activities. The research team’s findings were later published in published in PNAS.

Under the mentorship of her advisors, Gregory Fournier, an associate professor of geobiology, and Summons, Husain studies both the fossil record and the genetic records of organisms alive today to answer fundamental questions about life’s evolution on Earth. “The farther back into Earth’s history we go, the fewer complete records we have,” Husain says, “To answer the questions that arise, I hope to employ the biggest tool set I can.”

Currently, Husain investigates the biomarkers of microbes living in Antarctic biofilms, which she hopes will provide hints about the types of places where the ancestors of complex life sheltered during global glaciation events through Earth’s Cryogenian period, which stretched between 720 to 635 million years ago. To do this, Husain applies techniques from chemistry, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry, to isolate and study microbial lipids, the precursors of molecular fossils preserved in the geologic record.

Husain also uses “molecular clocks,” tools which employ the genetic sequences of living organisms to estimate when in evolutionary time different species diverged, to better understand how long ago aerobic respiration arose on Earth. Using the growing databases of publicly available gene sequences, Husain says it’s possible to track the histories of metabolisms that arose billions of years ago in Earth’s past. Much of her research can also be applied to astrobiology, the study of potential life elsewhere in the universe.

As a PhD student, Husain has also had the opportunity to serve as teaching assistant for 12.885 (Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy) for two semesters. In that role, she says, “My goal is to help students improve their writing skills so that they are equipped to successfully communicate about important issues in science and policy in the future.”

Looking ahead, Husain hopes to continue applying both her science and communication skills to challenging problems related to Earth and the environment. Along the way, she knows that she wants to share the opportunities that she had with others. “Whichever form it takes,” she says, “I hope to play a role in cultivating the same types of supportive environments which have led me here.”  

[deinheilpraktiker]

Eine neue genetisch zielgerichtete MND-Therapie könnte einen Wendepunkt für die Patientenversorgung bedeuten

Wissenschaftler glauben, dass eine neue genetisch zielgerichtete Therapie zur Behandlung von Motoneuronerkrankungen (MND) einen Wendepunkt für die Patientenversorgung darstellen könnte, nachdem die Ergebnisse einer klinischen Phase-3-Studie nach 12 Monaten erhebliche körperliche Vorteile für Patienten gezeigt haben. Forscher des Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) fanden…

[mindblowingscience]

Teenagers who regularly puff away on their vape throughout the day could be exposing their bodies to potentially toxic metals. A new study led by researchers from the University of Nebraska has found that regular vapers between the ages of 13 and 17, who report using an e-cigarette at least eight times a day, have 30 percent more lead and twice as much uranium in their urine compared to their peers who only occasionally vape. Among teens who preferred sweet vape flavors, as opposed to menthol or mint ones, biomarkers of uranium were especially high. The research lacks a control group of teens who did not vape at all, but the pattern evident within a US sample of 200 e-cigarette users who avoided cigarettes is still concerning. For the sake of public health, the researchers argue for further investigation into the potential toxicity of e-cigarettes. The results of this small study do not prove that vaping causes toxic metal accumulation in the body, but previous analyses have consistently found signs of toxic metals in e-cigarette aerosol samples and in the bodily fluid of vapers. At times, the blood and urine samples of vapers rival even those of cigarette smokers.

Continue Reading.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Quick aside: The people claiming they have Long Covid because of covid vaccination need to prove it. The scientists studying the phenomenon need to prove it. You know who never give us the specific antibody titers of these supposed vaccine injuries? The people who claim they've "never had covid" based on .... vibes(?) and the scientists studying them. Weird how they have near-identical symptoms and biomarkers to people who get Long Covid from an infection! It couldn't be that they're lying or had an asymptomatic infection and never knew they were sick! Nope! It's the jab! Make sure to hesitate about your next vaccination!

[transmutationisms]

i was wondering where this obviously bullshit claim came from and the answer is it's this study done on israeli citizens with access to healthcare who were between the ages of 51 and 70 at the start and had not been previously diagnosed with adhd or dementia, meaning those diagnosed with adhd received that diagnosis (subjective) (there is no biomarker or lesion or physiological defect) past the age of 51 and also the study includes this line:

lol. lmao, even

[collapsedsquid]

You talk to a science academic and they will talk about how important it is that they do the basic science that private industry does not fund and yeah they do but what they really do for private industry is provide the training that private industry does not want to do, and that training is what the private industry would really miss. Can litigate the value of individual studies, either shrimp on treadmills or yet another cancer biomarker, but it is all part of the training process. With whatever weird stuff that universities or science will be threatened with that is something they could keep in mind.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

We have a serious problem

Michael Laidlaw, MD: I'm a board-certified endocrinologist, practicing in private practice for the last 16 years. I've been studying and publishing in this area for the last 5 years, including peer reviewed journals such as Journal of of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and others. I also have a patient who is a detransitioner.

I think it's important to note that studies are shown that desistance, or growing out of this condition, of children by adulthood is very high. It's some 50-98%.

I want to be sure before I give someone a very powerful hormone like Insulin that they in fact have diabetes.

What about cancer? Before we give any powerful agents such as chemotherapeutics or surgeries, we certainly want to have physical evidence of this problem, such as biopsies or imaging.

Now, the gender affirmative therapy treatment proposed by WPATH gives very powerful hormones and surgeries on what basis? Where can we find the gender identity to be certain that these children will not desist by adulthood? Can we use imaging of the brain or blood tests, genetic testing, are there other biomarkers to ensure that we are correct? There is no such thing.

Julia Mason, MD: The Endocrine Society put out guidelines in 2017, and they were very careful in the guidelines. One, to point out that the evidence was of low and very low quality. And they also said in the guidelines that they have no idea how you identify which kids are trans and require this treatment.

And then the American Academy of Pediatrics the next year just leapt into that void and said, oh, oh, we'll tell you how you know which kids. You ask them.

Prior to 2018 I had maybe one trans patient. But then there was another one. And another one. And another one.

It wasn't until later that I started asking questions like, wait, every single kid I send to the gender clinic gets put on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Just, it was happening immediately.

Patrick Hunter, MD: This affirmative model of care has spread wildly in the last 8 years. Now we have objective, unbiased systematic reviews. These systematic reviews tell us the evidence for youth transition is poor quality, and with very low certainty for benefit.

In JAMA Pediatrics, there was a study reported from Northwestern University in Chicago. Patients ranged in age from 13 to 24 years. The authors concluded that mastectomy was beneficial and should not be delayed in youth. What lead them to that conclusion? The finding that 3 months after surgery, the 36 patients were happy with their flat chests. They lost 9% of their surgical cases to follow-up. Nine percent. In 3 months.

It is absurd, meaningless to draw any conclusions after 3 months.

This paper is indicative of the quality of research we have in this field, published in our most prestigious journals.

We have a serious problem.

[reasonsforhope]

Researchers from Western and Brown University have made groundbreaking progress towards identifying the root cause and potential therapy for preeclampsia.

The pregnancy complication affects up to eight per cent of pregnancies globally and is the leading cause of maternal and fetal mortality due to premature delivery, complications with the placenta and lack of oxygen.

The research, led by Drs. Kun Ping Lu and Xiao Zhen Zhou at Western, and Drs. Surendra Sharma and Sukanta Jash at Brown, has identified a toxic protein, cis P-tau, in the blood and placenta of preeclampsia patients.

According to the study published in Nature Communications, cis P-tau is a central circulating driver of preeclampsia – a “troublemaker” that plays a major role in causing the deadly complication...

“The root cause of preeclampsia has (so far) remained unknown, and without a known cause there has been no cure. Preterm delivery is the only life-saving measure,” said Lu, professor of biochemistry and oncology at  Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry...

“Our study identifies cis P-tau as a crucial culprit and biomarker for preeclampsia. It can be used for early diagnosis of the complication and is a crucial therapeutic target,” said Sharma...

Until now, cis P-tau was mainly associated with neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and stroke. This association was discovered by Lu and Zhou in 2015 as a result of their decades of research on the role of tau protein in cancer and Alzheimer’s.

An antibody developed by Zhou in 2012 to target only the toxic protein while leaving its healthy counterpart unscathed is currently undergoing clinical trials in human patients suffering from TBI and Alzheimer’s Disease. The antibody has shown promising results in animal models and human cell cultures in treating the brain conditions.

The researchers were curious whether the same antibody could work as a potential treatment for preeclampsia. Upon testing the antibody in mouse models they found astonishing results.

“In this study, we found the cis P-tau antibody efficiently depleted the toxic protein in the blood and placenta, and corrected all features associated with preeclampsia in mice. Clinical features of preeclampsia, like elevated blood pressure, excessive protein in urine and fetal growth restriction, among others, were eliminated and pregnancy was normal,” said Sharma.

Sharma and his team at Brown have been working on developing an assay for early detection of preeclampsia and therapies to treat the condition. He believes the findings of this study have brought them closer to their goal...

“The results have far-reaching implications. This could revolutionize how we understand and treat a range of conditions, from pregnancy-related issues to brain disorders,” said Lu.

-via India Education Diary, September 22, 2023

[sysmedsaresexist]

News Flash ⚡

A neurostructural biomarker of dissociative amnesia: a hippocampal study in dissociative identity disorder

Another study provides evidence that emotional neglect in childhood is the biggest indicator of DID.

[axel-mania]

Huge discovery just came out. There is likely now a reliable biomarker for the disease I probably have, which has lead to nerve damage that has affected me in a variety of ways. Ehlers-Danlos is mainly known for being a genetic disease of improper collagen production, which ends up fucking with most body systems.

There are many subtypes, but the most common, hypermobile, had no genetic marker. This meant that it was almost impossible to get a diagnosis, with most doctors not even acknowledging its existence, and anyone without obvious enough dysfunction getting told they didn't "really" have EDS, just hypermobility, so there's no point in treating them. But now it seems that there is no such distinction between just hypermobility and EDS, as the same biomarker was found in the blood of everyone with that set of symptoms.

If we have an easy blood test a PCP can order to tell whether or not you have EDS, then things get easier as far as accessing specialists, getting disability payments, etc. But treatment is in a pretty bad place for us with or without a diagnosis, so it's not exactly a huge hurrah. Obviously plenty of genetic diseases with obvious markers are still associated with heavy medical malpractice and just getting told to exercise and take Tylenol. Still, this feels really good. I hope I live to get this test done.

[thelunastusco]

We have the disorder.

Endogenic systems still exist.

Sunni can laugh at it, Anna can roll her eyes, Shiloh can sigh and shrug their shoulders, but anti-endos refusing to read just really pisses me the fuck off.

I think it's the smug "we're so much smarter than those stupid endogenic fakers" energy that so many of them have and for this particular time the "just give us some sources proving you exist" thing on top of the refusing to read the sources we give that really grinds my gears.

If you can't be bothered to read sources we give you, QUIT ASKING FOR THEM.

Ye gods.

[darkmaga-returns]

By GreenMedInfo Research Group

A new epidemiological study found that fluoride exposure from drinking water associates with decreased testosterone levels in young and middle-aged men.

Testosterone dropped most sharply in 18-39 year-olds based on fluoride burden. Surprisingly, in older men with higher fluoride exposure, testosterone increased with age instead of declining as expected. This complex relationship hints that fluoride may disrupt multiple hormonal pathways beyond the male reproductive axis.

A novel study reveals fluoride affects serum testosterone in a complex, age-specific manner, adding evidence that environmental toxicants may contribute to declining hormonal function in younger males.

Published in Biological Trace Element Research, the cross-sectional study examined fluoride exposure and two reproductive biomarkers, testosterone and androgen binding protein (ABP), in over 300 Chinese farmers.1 Scientists divided participants into higher and lower fluoride exposure groups based on urinary fluoride levels.

Compared to the lower exposure group, men with elevated fluoride measured significantly lower testosterone overall. This depletion was most pronounced in 18-39 year olds. Paradoxically, among higher-exposed middle aged and older men, testosterone increased slightly with age instead of undergoing the expected age-related decline.

Meanwhile, ABP remained unaffected across groups regardless of fluoride burden and age. As ABP governs testosterone transport and tissue uptake, results indicate fluoride direct

[mindblowingscience]

The average glioblastoma patient survives 12-18 months after diagnosis. The crux of the diagnostic is a biochip that uses electrokinetic technology to detect biomarkers, or active Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors (EGFRs), which are overexpressed in certain cancers such as glioblastoma and found in extracellular vesicles. “Extracellular vesicles or exosomes are unique nanoparticles secreted by cells. They are big—10 to 50 times bigger than a molecule—and they have a weak charge. Our technology was specifically designed for these nanoparticles, using their features to our advantage,” says Hsueh-Chia Chang, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Notre Dame and lead author of the study about the diagnostic published in Communications Biology.

Continue Reading.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Actively Recruiting long COVID Studies

A Randomized Double Blind Placebo Control Trial to Determine the Effects of Oxaloacetate on Improving Fatigue in Long COVID

A Randomized Double Blind Placebo Control Trial to Determine the Effects of Ivabradine and lifestyle changes on Long COVID.

sign up if you're interested! They've also got a long list of studies and other resources at this webpage.

[transmutationisms]

these tags annoyed me to be honest

1. PCOS is a bad point of comparison because despite the name, diagnosis is not *supposed to be* done on the primary basis of finding cysts in the ovaries; these are common and not inherently of concern. instead, the more indicative biomarker is the hormone test (high levels of testosterone *throughout the menstrual period*, with corresponding disruption to the expected/typical fluctuations in estrogen/progesterone) but often diagnosis is done more on the basis of a physical exam ('exam') confirming characteristics such as hairiness or adiposity. this absolutely DOES result in PCOS overdiagnosis for some demographics; while a real biological condition, PCOS is also a load-bearing diagnostic term in the enforcement of very specific standards of (white) femininity and its use also frequently masks, for example, the frequency of hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) secondary to chronic energy deficiency (as in anorexia), which doctors are loathe to diagnose because they view weight loss as prima facie good

2. the reason it matters that psychiatric diagnoses do not have a 'biology' is not because every disease must have a single specific biomarker; it is correct that some do not. however, the way patient complaints are sifted into categories labelled 'psychiatric' versus '(otherwise) medical' begins essentially with determining whether the distress is 'physical' or 'mental'. in other words, in the case of, say, the chronic fatigue syndrome (famously, lacking a known specific biomarker), the symptoms being investigated by the non-psychiatrist physician are still physical (PEM; mast cell dysregulation; pain; etc) whereas a diagnosis of depression may be accompanied by, but requires no, physical symptoms or presentation. the psychiatric claim that its diagnoses have biological causes and correlates is specifically a claim about the role of neurobiology in the causation of affective states; thus, the comparison to physical complaints is meaningless here

3. this person goes on to claim that depressives do in fact share, though not universally, certain biomarkers such as mitochondrial dysregulations. such claims typically come from various imaging studies plagued with systemic problems in the selection and definition of patient populations as well as the subjectivity of result interpretation and analysis. these claims are not well supported and typically rely on circular selection and definition of patient populations

4. speaking philosophically, it is in fact often correct to challenge the notion that a physical 'disease' chronically lacking a specific biomarker is indeed a disease, in any sense besides the colloquial one. that is, diseases that cannot be correlated with one cause or presentation are often better understood as 'syndromes', which is to say, as a taxonomical heuristic that is likely grouping together multiple disparate physical (anatomical, physiological, functional, &c) problems with multiple disparate causes. this is almost certainly the case for chronic fatigue syndrome, for example. this is a philosophical distinction that matters for research and understanding, and does not mean or imply anything to minimise or contradict the patient experience of the syndrome or symptoms. it matters because, for instance, CFS triggered by the epstein-barr virus may indeed turn out to have different disease mechanisms to CFS triggered by, say, covid-19, or may have different specific mechanisms when running in certain families, and so on. distinguishing these much more specific presentations, and possibly distinct diseases, from the current discursive schema of the overlying syndrome is potentially very good for patients, who likely have different needs and treatments to one another despite currently all sharing the same label in their charts

5. which goes back to an overlying point, which is that (despite frequent defensiveness to the contrary), whether or not something is a disease does not inherently tell us anything about its reality, its severity, its cause, the moral status of its sufferers, &c