Telomerase

which are then donated for research purposes. While hES can form all of the tissues in the body, they cannot form the other tissues that are required for a complete individual to form. Embryonic cells are also immortal, expressing abnormal levels of telomerase, which is a type of protein produced to ensure the telomere ends of chromosomes are maintained at each cell separation, and the cells do not undergo deterioration. In 1995, James A. Thomson began work as the chief pathologist…

naturally occurring and artificially produced chemicals which can increase the life-expectancy of an organism like resveratrol (Baur, et al., 2006). There exists strong belief among scientists that boosting the amount or proportion of in the body of telomerase may help to maintain the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes which could prevent cells from dying leading to extension of life (Macrae , 2008: retrieved on 22-08-2014). Another interesting discourse comes from transhumanist…

Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. A telomere is a stretch of DNA which has repetitive sequences of bases at the ends of chromosomes. When scientists started to develop knowledge on how genes are replicated, they realised that on one of the double strands of DNA cannot be replicated…

dolly the cloned Finn Dorset lamb was born. Telomeric changes: Every time DNA is copied, it shrinks. It shrinks because as we age, the DNA divides and divides so many times but in egg and sperm cells, it is “immortal” because an enzyme called telomerase adds more to the end every time. But in somatic cells divide a lot slower. Somatic cells only divide to replace damaged cells which is why the divide a lot slower. Dolly the sheep showed Telomeric changes and is why she started to get sicker and…

Barrett’s esophagus is a complication in the esophagus from a reflux disease predisposing patients to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Esophageal adenocarcinoma is a tumor in the esophagus that has increased up more than 7-fold over the past few decades. Since there has been such a significant increase in esophageal adenocarcinoma, the topic of endoscopic screening and surveillance for GERD and Barrett’s esophagus is being heavily debated. Barrett’s esophagus is a result of chronic gastro-esophageal…

There are roughly thirty-seven trillion cells present in the human body. Each of these cells have a specific function to perform like propagating one’s genes or carrying oxygen towards the different parts of the body. Some of these cells make up the skeletal system which is comprised of two hundred and seven different bones. Some of these cells make up the various organs in the body like the lungs and the heart. Some of these cells are responsible for the organs responsible for procreation, the…

Hypothalamic programming of systemic ageing involving IKK-b, NF-kB and GnRH (Zhang et al., 2013). Cellular senescence is when a cell’s replicative mechanism becomes arrested. This was phenomenon was first described in Hayflick’s experiment. Cellular senescence is usually due to protect the cell from becoming cancerous but it also plays a prominent role in aging (van Deursen, 2014). While senescence describes a halt in proliferation, cancer development is the uncontrolled proliferation of…

1.0 Introduction: The Effect of Alzheimer’s on the Family Structure Alzheimer’s and related dementia is a decline in mental function severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities (Stats Canada, 2017, para. 2) and it affects over 550 thousand people in Canada (Alzheimer Society, 2017). There is a lot of research on how Alzheimer’s affects the person but not much on how it affects their family and caregivers. Providing more information on how caregivers are affected…

The cell is the building block of life. The earliest form of these organisms are called stem cells, which can give rise to potentially any kind of cell. The possibilities of these revolutionary cells are vast, and are currently being applied in many scientific fields, one being the medical field. Stem cell scientists study a four to five day old organism, a ball of one hundred and twenty cells, which has the potential to give rise to a human being. Many think that the protection of human life…