Bacteriophages

Society of America Annual Meeting, Austin Texas. (Poster) Hasan Alkhairo, Dominique Grim (May 2013). Characterization of gene families and genome features from VCU’s collection of mycobacteriophages: Repressor proteins, Fourth Annual Symposium on Bacteriophage Genome Analysis, Richmond Virginia. (Presentation) Relevant Experience Natural Heritage Foundation, Department of Conservation and Recreation: Volunteer, Richmond Virginia April – May…

two types of light chains in immunoglobulins. In Japanese folklore, Kappa is a prankster “river-child.” Lambda: Lambda is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet (Λ, λ), and it describes the eleventh brightest star in a constellation. It is a bacteriophage virus used in genetic research. In anatomy, lambda is the location where the parietal and occipital bone meet. In biochemistry, Lambda is a polypeptide chain that is one of two types of light chains in immunoglobulins. Mu: Mu is the twelfth …

Famous Geneticist James D. Watson DNA is the most famous molecule that is found in the world today, though it was quite a late discovery in the scientific world. [5] James Watson was one of the geneticists that helped discover the structure of DNA. James Watson was an Academic, Biologist, Geneticist, Zoologist, and a scientist. He was born on the 6th of April 1928 in Chicago and is now 87 years old. Watson was awarded the Nobel Prize for helping discover the double-helix structure of DNA. His…

Genes shape who we are as individuals, and as a species. Genes have profound effects on health. Alterations in the DNA sequence, cause mutations that are irreversible. A new technology, Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, short for CRISPR is the solution to genetic diseases. Crispr consists of two components, a guide RNA and an enzyme called, Cas9. The repeats are short segments of DNA, and are palindrome, sequence of letters that read the same left to right. The repeats…

The siRNA is a pre-designed sequence located within an RNA scaffold that binds to the DNA and the sequence to guide Cas9 to the proper section of the genome that ensures the enzyme makes a precise cut across both strands of the DNA. For example, bacteriophages hunt bacteria in the ocean killing 40% daily. Phages are a virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium. They insert their own genetic code into the bacteria and take them to use as factories. The bacteria…

Something to Grapple with: How Wily Lyme Disease Prowls the Body From animals to humans, Lyme disease is affecting many individuals across the world. With symptoms such as fatigue and pain, Lyme disease can range from being debilitating to consuming your entire life. Scientists had very little research to find why the disease persists so long in the body until researchers at the University of Toronto investigated that the bacterium Borrelia Burgdorferi is the problem. It actually attaches to the…

ADOPT A MICROBE Part 3 Marissa DiMauro BIO 250-550 In the selected article by Sofie Rombouts et al., there is a problem posed by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringea pv. porri. The issue is due to the bacterial blights produced by this pathogen, which hurts leek cultivation. This has caught scientist’s attention, as these cases of bacterial blights have been increasing and are causing economical losses in the process. Although there are different methods for disease…

hospitalization and 61 deaths annually. CASE STUDY 1 The Walkerton, Ontario, Canada (population of 5,000) EHEC 0157 outbreak tragedy took place on 12 – 15th May, 2000. Reported 5 people died, 27 hospitalized and thousands sickened. This outbreak was due to the presence of EHEC O157 in the water supply of the small town. Symptoms started with reported cases of bloody diarrhea, gastrointestinal infections and accompanied with other symptoms. Even with these reported cases, the Walkertown Public…

the elderly. The diagnosis of E. coli found in an elderly woman, Doris, makes sense especially with someone who has a history of UTI and kidney infections. Additionally, this species can acquire virulence factors encoded on their plasmids or in bacteriophage DNA, causing some strains to have enhanced virulence. E. coli 0157:H7 is a particularly virulent strain that has been linked with multiple kinds of contaminated food and has caused many deaths². This strain of E. coli forms a toxin that…

Antibiotic resistance allows harmful microbes to exist thereby posing a major threat to many species. These microbes reject the antibiotics used to treat them; this leads to more bacterial infections, increased monetary funds to treat the infections, dangerous side effects from the use of several different antibiotics, and increased morbidity and mortality (“Impacts of Antibiotic Resistance”, 2014). The healthcare system’s approach to this widespread, global issue may be extremely expensive in…