Category Archives: Physiology

Quantifying stress & anxiety: Why corporate wellness programs will play a pivotal role in this paradigm shift – MedCity News

May 24, 2021 medical

The past decade has seen us come on leaps and bounds as a society in our awareness and understanding of the scale and impact of mental health problems. In recent years, the focus has switched somewhat from reaction to prevention in parallel with the healthcare industry as a whole, in a bid to secure the sustainability of care services.

The economic impact of the mental health epidemic is a key driver behind governments and businesses move towards more preventive wellbeing initiatives. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that mental health problems in the workplace cost the global economy $1 trillion annually in lost productivity.

Stress and anxiety contribute heavily to this statistic. Stress is defined as the bodys reaction to feeling threatened or under pressure. Anxiety, which is often linked to stress, is defined as a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, which can be mild or severe and is the main symptom of several mental disorders.

In the UK, for example, 57% of all working days lost to ill health were due to stress and anxiety in 2018. Its a similar story in the US, where its estimated that over half of all working days lost annually from absenteeism are stress-related, with the annual cost in 2013 alone equating to over $84 billion.

Stress and anxiety can also have a significant impact on an individuals physical health, affecting their work performance and productivity and causing further absenteeism. This form of poor mental health can impact physical health either directly through autonomic nervous system activity or indirectly as a result of unhealthy behaviors (e.g. poor diet, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse and smoking), increasing an individuals risk of developing cardiovascular problems.

It is therefore in an effort to break this chain, and in doing so save costs long-term, that employers are increasing their focus on establishing effective wellness programs, meaning any promotional activity or organizational policy that supports healthy behavior in the workplace and improves health outcomes. Corporate wellness programs nowadays include anything from healthy eating education, financial advice and access to weight loss and fitness programs, to more direct healthcare such as on-site medical screening, stress management, smoking cessation programs, and counseling services (in the form of employee assistance programs).

And this certainly can save costs long-term! Most famously, Johnson & Johnson leaders estimate that wellness programs have cumulatively saved the company $250 million on healthcare costs over the past decade; with a return of $2.71 for every dollar spent between 2002 and 2008. Its no surprise, then, that in 2020 the workplace wellness industry was estimated to be worth $48 billion globally.

Recent innovations in the space include the integration of wearable or smartphone technologies, used by employees to monitor and collect physical health data. These technologies provide employees with real-world physiological health insights to further incentivize participation in programs and increase and maintain their engagement. They simultaneously provide employers with an insight into the overall physical health of their workforce.

A golden opportunity to transform our relationship with mental health

However, with this most recent integration of digital health technologies comes a hitherto unrecognized opportunity to transform our understanding and treatment of mental health and wellbeing.

One of the primary barriers to delivering quality mental health care throughout history has been the difficulty in establishing accurate and objective methods to diagnose, assess and monitor treatment outcomes for psychological conditions. As was explained so eloquently by Washington University in November last year, if patients display symptoms of a heart attack, there are biological tests that can be run to look for diagnostic biomarkers that determine whether they are indeed suffering a heart attack or not. However, in the case of mental health disorders, the window by which we access the mind is still through psychological questioning, not biological parameters.

Mental health professionals screen, diagnose and monitor the symptoms and outcomes of patients through self-reported methods prone to excess subjectivity and therefore unreliability, such as diagnostic interviews and questionnaires. A patients self-reported symptoms are correlated with the ICD or DSM diagnostic manuals, yet challenges arise in the high heterogeneity of mental illnesses, low inter-rate reliability (i.e. poor agreement between clinicians diagnoses) and high comorbidity.

There is therefore a need to expand further than solely symptom-based to biology-based characterization of mental health conditions if we are to combat this unreliability and establish more evidence-based methods for diagnosis and monitoring, similar to our approach to physical illness.

So, how do we do this?

The National Institute for Mental Health for instance has already taken the first steps towards this with the RDoC (Research Domain Criteria). Advancements in MRI technology have also enabled research into understanding brain activity in certain depressive conditions.

But the most exciting development lies in the proliferation of wearable and smartphone health monitoring technologies. As the ability to collect vast amounts of physiological health data becomes more and more ubiquitous, the opportunity to utilize machine learning (ML) to extract new insights into the physiology of each individual grows larger.

With this comes the chance to uncover and establish personalized digital biomarkers for mental health conditions; described as indicators of mental state that can be derived through a patients use of a digital technology. These digital biomarkers can cover physiology (e.g. heart rate), cognition (e.g. eye movement on screens), behavioral (e.g. via GPS) and social (e.g. call frequency) factors. However, it is physiology that concerns us here.

Corporate wellness programs provide the perfect environment to explore the use of wearables and smartphone sensors in uncovering digital biomarkers which link physical health to mental wellbeing due to the huge potential benefits for all parties involved; employers and employees.

For example, by validating elements of cardiopulmonary functions as a digital biomarker for excess stress or anxiety disorders (a relationship for which some empirical evidence already exists), employers can not only identify stress and anxiety risks in the workplace and intervene earlier to protect employee mental wellbeing, but also establish an evidence-based approach for evaluating the effectiveness of workplace wellness initiatives. This is due to the fact that quantitative cardiopulmonary data would serve as a reliable measure of employee stress and/or mental wellbeing.

Employees, on the other hand, are empowered with insight into direct correlations between how they feel and their physical health. Therefore their increased engagement in wellness programs will improve their efficacy in preventing the deterioration of their mental health. For this reason, accessibility and ease-of-use must remain top of mind when choosing health monitoring technologies.

Finally, establishing digital biomarkers which correlate physiological parameters with mental health and wellbeing not only has the potential to provide more reliable tools for guiding diagnosis and evaluating patient outcomes but will also improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of mental disorders, in turn allowing for more effective preventive measures.

Photo: Creativeye99, Getty Images

Physiology

Is riding an electric bike good exercise, or just convenient transportation? – The Irish Times

May 24, 2021 medical

Does riding an electric bike to work count as exercise, and not just a mode of transportation?

It can, if you ride right, according to a pragmatic new study comparing the physiological effects of e-bikes and standard road bicycles during a simulated commute. The study, which involved riders new to e-cycling, found that most could complete their commutes faster and with less effort on e-bikes than standard bicycles, while elevating their breathing and heart rates enough to get a meaningful workout.

But the benefits varied and depended, to some extent, on how peoples bikes were adjusted and how they adjusted to the bikes. The findings have particular relevance at the moment, as pandemic restrictions loosen and offices reopen, and many of us consider options other than packed trains to move ourselves from our homes to elsewhere.

Few people bike to work. Asked why, many tell researchers that bike commuting requires too much time, perspiration and accident risk. Simultaneously, though, people report a growing interest in improving their health and reducing their ecological impact by driving less.

In theory, both these hopes and concerns could be met or minimised with e-bikes. An alluring technological compromise between a standard, self-powered bicycle and a scooter, e-bikes look almost like regular bikes but are fitted with battery-powered electric motors that assist pedalling, slightly juicing each stroke.

With most e-bikes, this assistance is small, similar to riding with a placid tailwind, and ceases once you reach a maximum speed of about 30km/h or stop pedalling. The motor will not turn the pedals for you.

Essentially, e-bikes are designed to make riding less taxing, which means commuters should arrive at their destinations more swiftly and with less sweat. They can also provide a psychological boost, helping riders feel capable of tackling hills they might otherwise avoid. But whether they also complete a workout while e-riding has been less clear.

So, for the new study, which was published in March in the Translational Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio decided to ask inexperienced cyclists to faux-commute. To do so, they recruited 30 local men and women, aged 19 to 61, and invited them to the physiology lab to check their fitness levels, along with their current attitudes about e-bikes and commuting.

Then, they equipped each volunteer with a standard road bike and an e-bike and asked them to commute on each bike at their preferred pace for approximately 5km. The cyclists pedalled around a flat loop course, once on the road bikes and twice with the e-bike. On one of these rides, their bike was set to a low level of pedal assistance, and on the other, the oomph was upped until the motor sent more than 200 watts of power to the pedals. Throughout, the commuters wore timers, heart rate monitors and facial masks to measure their oxygen consumption.

Afterward, to no ones surprise, the scientists found that the motorised bikes were zippy. On e-bikes, at either assistance level, riders covered the 5km several minutes faster than on the standard bike about 11 or 12 minutes on an e-bike, on average, compared to about 14 minutes on a regular bike. They also reported that riding the e-bike felt easier. Even so, their heart rates and respiration generally rose enough for those commutes to qualify as moderate exercise, based on standard physiological benchmarks, the scientists decided, and should, over time, contribute to health and fitness.

But the cyclists results were not all uniform or constructive. A few riders efforts, especially when they used the higher assistance setting on the e-bikes, were too physiologically mild to count as moderate exercise. Almost everyone also burned about 30 per cent fewer calories while e-biking than while road riding 344 to 422 calories on average on an e-bike versus 505 calories on a regular bike which may be a consideration if someone is hoping to use bike commuting to help lose weight.

And several riders told the researchers they worried about safety and control on the e-bikes, although most, after the two rides, reported greater confidence in their bike-handling skills, and found the e-commutes, compared to the road biking, more fun.

This study, though, was obviously small-scale and short-term, involving only three brief pseudo-commutes. Still, the findings suggest that riding an e-bike, like other forms of active transport, can be as good for the person doing it as for the environment, says Helaine Alessio, the chair of the department of kinesiology at Miami University, who led the new study with her colleague Kyle Timmerman and others.

But to increase your potential health benefits the most, she says, keep the pedal assistance level set as low as is comfortable for you. Also, for the sake of safety, practice riding a new e-bike or any standard bike on a lightly trafficked route until you feel poised and secure with bike handling.

Wear bright, visible clothing, too, and choose your commuting route wisely, Dr Alessio says. Look for bike paths and bike lanes whenever possible, even if you need to go a little bit out of your way. New York Times

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Is riding an electric bike good exercise, or just convenient transportation? - The Irish Times

Physiology

Why we find the sound of our voice cringeworthy – Scroll.in

May 24, 2021 medical

As a surgeon who specialises in treating patients with voice problems, I routinely record my patients speaking. For me, these recordings are incredibly valuable. They allow me to track slight changes in their voices from visit to visit, and it helps confirm whether surgery or voice therapy led to improvements.

Yet I am surprised by how difficult these sessions can be for my patients. Many become visibly uncomfortable upon hearing their voice played back to them.

Do I really sound like that? they wonder, wincing.

(Yes, you do.)

Some become so unsettled they refuse outright to listen to the recording much less go over the subtle changes I want to highlight.

The discomfort we have over hearing our voices in audio recordings is probably due to a mix of physiology and psychology.

For one, the sound from an audio recording is transmitted differently to your brain than the sound generated when you speak.

When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travels through the air and into your ears what is referred to as air conduction. The sound energy vibrates the ear drum and small ear bones. These bones then transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea, which stimulates nerve axons that send the auditory signal to the brain.

However, when you speak, the sound from your voice reaches the inner ear in a different way. While some of the sound is transmitted through air conduction, much of the sound is internally conducted directly through your skull bones. When you hear your own voice when you speak, it is due to a blend of both external and internal conduction and internal bone conduction appears to boost the lower frequencies.

For this reason, people generally perceive their voice as deeper and richer when they speak. The recorded voice, in comparison, can sound thinner and higher-pitched, which many find cringeworthy.

There is a second reason hearing a recording of your voice can be so disconcerting. It really is a new voice one that exposes a difference between your self-perception and reality. Because your voice is unique and an important component of self-identity, this mismatch can be jarring. Suddenly you realise other people have been hearing something else all along.

Even though we may actually sound more like our recorded voice to others, I think the reason so many of us squirm upon hearing it is not that the recorded voice is necessarily worse than our perceived voice. Instead, we are simply more used to hearing ourselves sound a certain way.

A study published in 2005 had patients with voice problems rate their own voices when presented with recordings of them. They also had clinicians rate the voices. The researchers found that patients, across the board, tended to more negatively rate the quality of their recorded voice compared with the objective assessments of clinicians.

So if the voice in your head castigates the voice coming out of a recording device, it is probably your inner critic overreacting and you are judging yourself a bit too harshly.

Neel Bhatt is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, UW Medicine at the University of Washington.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

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Why we find the sound of our voice cringeworthy - Scroll.in

Physiology

Compound may prevent risk of form of arrhythmia from common medications – Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom

May 24, 2021 medical

Dozens of commonly used drugs, including antibiotics, anti-nausea and anticancer medications, have a potential side effect of lengthening the electrical event that triggers contraction, creating an irregular heartbeat, or cardiac arrhythmia called acquired Long QT syndrome. While safe in their current dosages, some of these drugs may have a more therapeutic benefit at higher doses, but are limited by the risk of arrhythmia.

Through both computational and experimental validation, a multi-institutional team of researchers has identified a compound that prevents the lengthening of the hearts electrical event, or action potential, resulting in a major step toward safer use and expanded therapeutic efficacy of these medications when taken in combination.

The team found that the compound, named C28, not only prevents or reverses the negative physiological effects on the action potential, but also does not cause any change on the normal action potential when used alone at the same concentrations. The results, found through rational drug design, were published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on May 14.

The research team was led by Jianmin Cui, professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis; Ira Cohen, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, professor of medicine and director of the Institute for Molecular Cardiology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University; and Xiaoqin Zou, professor of physics, biochemistry and a member of the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center and Institute for Data Science and Informatics at the University of Missouri.

The drugs in question, as well as several that have been pulled from the market, cause a prolongation of the QT interval of the heartbeat, known as acquired Long QT Syndrome, that predisposes patients to cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death. In rare cases, Long QT also can be caused by specific mutations in genes that code for ion channel proteins, which conduct the ionic currents to generate the action potential.

Although there are several types of ion channels in the heart, a change in one or more of them may lead to this arrhythmia, which contributes to about 200,000 to 300,000 sudden deaths a year, more deaths than from stroke, lung cancer or breast cancer.

The team selected a specific target, IKs, for this work because it is one of the two potassium channels that are activated during the action potential: IKr (rapid) and IKs (slow).

The rapid one plays a major role in the action potential, said Cohen, one of the worlds top electrophysiologists. If you block it, Long QT results, and you get a long action potential. IKs is very slow and contributes much less to the normal action potential duration.

It was this difference in roles that suggested that increasing IKs might not significantly affect normal electrical activity but could shorten a prolonged action potential.

Cui, an internationally renowned expert on ion channels, and the team wanted to determine if the prolongation of the QT interval could be prevented by compensating for the change in current and inducing the Long QT Syndrome by enhancing IKs. They identified a site on the voltage-sensing domain of the IKs potassium ion channel that could be accessed by small molecules.

Zou, an internationally recognized expert who specializes in developing new and efficient algorithms for predicting protein interactions, and the team used the atomic structure of the KCNQ1 unit of the IKs channel protein to computationally screen a library of a quarter of a million small compounds that targeted this voltage-sensing domain of the KCNQ1 protein unit. To do this, they developed software called MDock to test the interaction of small compounds with a specific protein in silico, or computationally.

By identifying the geometric and chemical traits of the small compounds, they can find the one that fits into the protein sort of a high-tech, 3D jigsaw puzzle. While it sounds simple, the process is quite complicated as it involves charge interactions, hydrogen bonding and other physicochemical interactions of both the protein and the small compound.

We know the problems, and the way to make great progress is to identify the weaknesses and challenges and fix them, Zou said. We know the functional and structural details of the protein, so we can use an algorithm to dock each molecule onto the protein at the atomic level.

One by one, Zou and her lab docked the potential compounds with the protein KCNQ1 and compared the binding energy of each one. They selected about 50 candidates with very negative, or tight, binding energies.

Cui and his lab then identified C28 using experiments out of the 50 candidates identified in silico by Zous lab. They validated the docking results by measuring the shift of voltage-dependent activation of the IKs channel at various concentrations of C28 to confirm that C28 indeed enhances the IKs channel function. They also studied a series of genetically modified IKs channels to reveal the binding of C28 to the site for the in silico screening.

Cohen and his lab tested the C28 compound in ventricular myocytes from a small mammal model that expresses the same IKs channel as humans. They found that C28 could prevent or reverse the drug-induced prolongation of the electrical signals across the cardiac cell membrane and minimally affected the normal action potentials at the same dosage. They also determined that there were no significant effects on atrial muscle cells, an important control for the drugs potential use.

We are very excited about this, Cohen said. In many of these medications, there is a concentration of the drug that is acceptable, and at higher doses, it becomes dangerous. If C28 can eliminate the danger of inducing Q-T prolongation, then these drugs can be used at higher concentrations, and in many cases, they can become more therapeutic.

While the compound needs additional verification and testing, the researchers say there is tremendous potential for this compound or others like it and could help to convert second-line drugs into first-line drugs and return others to the market. With assistance from the Washington University Office of Technology Management, they have patented the compound, and Cui has founded a startup company, VivoCor, to continue to work on the compound and others like it as potential drug candidates.

The work was accelerated by a Leadership and Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program (LEAP) Inventor Challenge grant Washington University in St. Louis in 2018 funded by the Office of Technology Management, the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, the Center for Drug Discovery, the Center for Research Innovation in Biotechnology, and the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

This work was done by an effective drug design approach: identifying a critical site in the ion channel based on understanding of structure-function relation, using insilico dockingto identify compounds that interact with the critical site in the ion channel, validating functional modulation of the ion channel by the compound, and demonstrating therapeutic potential in cardiac myocytes, Zou said. Our three labs form a great team, and without any of them, this would not be possible.

The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis promotes independent inquiry and education with an emphasis on scientific excellence, innovation and collaboration without boundaries. McKelvey Engineering has top-ranked research and graduate programs across departments, particularly in biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and computing, and has one of the most selective undergraduate programs in the country. With 140 full-time faculty, 1,387 undergraduate students, 1,448 graduate students and 21,000 living alumni, we are working to solve some of societys greatest challenges; to prepare students to become leaders and innovate throughout their careers; and to be a catalyst of economic development for the St. Louis region and beyond.

Lin Y, Grinter S, Lu Z, Xu X, Wang H Z, Liang H, Hou P, Gao J, Clausen C, Shi J, Zhao W, Ma Z, Liu Y, White, K M, Zhao L, Kang P W, Zhang G, Cohen I, Zou X, Cui J. Modulating the voltage sensor of a cardiac potassium channel shows antiarrhythmic effects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), date, DOI.

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL126774, R01 DK108989, R01 GM109980, R35GM136409; the American Heart Association (13GRNT16990076). The computations were performed on the high-performance computing infrastructure supported by NSF CNS-1429294 and the HPC resources supported by the University of Missouri Bioinformatics Consortium (UMBC).

Authors Jianmin Cui and Jingyi Shi are cofounders of a startup company, VivoCor LLC, which is targeting IKs for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia.

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Compound may prevent risk of form of arrhythmia from common medications - Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom

Physiology

Life on Earth may be carbon-based, but another element matters, too > News > USC Dornsife – USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

May 24, 2021 medical

Marine microbiologist Doug Capone details the current understanding of the role nitrogen-fixing marine microbes play in the nitrogen cycle in his latest book. [5 min read]

Middle school students learn in science class about the carbon cycle the flow of carbon among the atmosphere, living organisms, soil and the oceans. But another, less familiar cycle also plays a crucial role in the balance of nature: the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen constitutes about 78% of the Earths atmosphere, where it exists mainly in its most stable form, a gas called dinitrogen, or N2. A significant amount also resides in the oceans as dissolved gas.

Most animals and plants cant use N2; they first need it turned into a more reactive form, such as ammonia, through a process called nitrogen fixation. But only certain microorganisms can fix nitrogen, and many of those live in marine environments. They draw the N2from the water and, using a specialized enzyme, break the bond between the two nitrogen atoms and attach other atoms to each, making new molecules that other living organisms can use.

The process is crucial to life on Earth and directly affects humans.

The oceans are becoming an ever-increasing source of food for humanity, and nitrogen fixation is critical in maintaining many marine food webs, saidDoug Capone, professor ofbiological sciencesat the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on understanding how ocean microbes affect the movement of important elements, including carbon and nitrogen, through plants and animals and from land to sea to air and back.

Getting a fix on global fixation

Capone has studied diverse ecological systems throughout the world, including the tropical open ocean, coral reefs, mangroves, temperate estuaries, groundwater aquifers and Antarctic snows.

A thorough understanding of the factors involved in nitrogen fixation in the oceans could help future generations safely and sustainably farm the oceans, he said.

Capone, collaborating with Jonathan Zehr of the University of California, Santa Cruz, recently publishedMarine Nitrogen Fixation(Springer, 2021), which summarizes the extensive research and current understanding of marine nitrogen fixation. The book builds onan articlethe pair wrote and published last year at the request of the journalScience.

Capone, who holds the William and Julie Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies, and Zehr, a Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Cruz, are widely respected authorities on marine nitrogen fixation.

Ive been working on aspects of marine N2fixation since my days as a Ph.D. student, Capone said. His dissertation focused on the importance of N2fixation in the tropical seagrassThalassia, also known as turtle grass.

In shallow tropical waters, turtle grass forms dense meadows that many sea-going species from microbes to mollusks to manatees call home. Nitrogen-fixing microbes, known scientifically as diazotrophs, live on the plants leaves and its roots, providing a critical source of nitrogen in the nutrient-depleted tropical waters, Capone said.

Combined expertise in a vital field of study

After landing his first faculty position at New Yorks Stony Brook University in the late 70s, Capone turned his attention to the open ocean, and in the decades since, he has led many research cruises to locations throughout the globe and conducted extensive research on the physiology, ecology and biogeochemical impact of open ocean diazotrophs.

Hes also spent a large share of his career mentoring young scientists and brought many others into this field.

Ive trained a gaggle of researches in this area undergrads, grad students and postdocs as well as having entrained researchers from diverse fields into the area of marine nitrogen fixation, he said.

Zehr is among those researchers, having joined Capones Stony Brook University Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 1980.

His postdoc with me was not on N2fixation, but he subsequently joined me on many of the cruises I led to study this process in the tropical ocean, said Capone.

Zehr has gone on to establish one of the best model systems for studying functional genes in the environment, according to Capone. Major advances in uncovering the vast biodiversity of microbes in the environment have generally relied upon analyzing the ribosomal genes genes involved in creating ribosomes that are common to all life to establish relationships and diversity. Zehr has instead used the genes directly involved with nitrogen fixation to find and characterize previously unknown microbes capable of fixing N2in the ocean and to track the expression of these genes.

Well-known for his work among the tiniest marine plankton, Zehr discovered a biological partnership, or symbiosis, of two microorganisms found throughout much of the worlds upper ocean.

One partner, the host alga, is eukaryotic meaning it has a nucleus and is autotrophic, able to use light energy and fix carbon; that is, take up carbon dioxide to feed itself and produce new organic molecules.

The other partner is a small, unicellular cyanobacterium, or blue-green alga, that can also derive energy from light but is unable to fix carbon. However, it does fix N2.

The two exchange metabolites in their symbiosis, and the cyanobacterium is a major player in fixing N2in the oceans, says Capone, who also hints that his and Zehrs combined expertise is a kind of symbiosis in its own right, making them particularly well-suited to put togetherMarine Nitrogen Fixation.

In many ways, we complement each other Jon on the molecular biology, physiology and biogeography of nitrogen fixation, myself focusing on ecology and biogeochemistry, Capone says.

In the book, which is primarily intended for scientists, graduate students and upper division undergraduates, he and Zehr give a detailed overview of the current understanding of global marine nitrogen fixation. Topics include which marine microorganisms are fixing nitrogen, where they live and what environmental factors including human-caused changes such as ocean warming and acidification impact microbial activity. And they point out that much about the physiology and regulation of N2fixation remains to be uncovered.

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Life on Earth may be carbon-based, but another element matters, too > News > USC Dornsife - USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Physiology

Honoring the Class of 2021 – Daily Sentinel

May 24, 2021 medical

REEDSVILLE Members of the Eastern High School Class of 2021 were recognized for their athletic and academic achievement during an awards ceremony on Thursday at Eastern High School.

Jenna Chadwell was announced as the Class of 2021 Valedictorian, with Layna Catlett announced as the Class of 2021 Salutatorian.

The remainder of the Top 10 of the Class of 2021 includes Jonna Epple, Olivia Barber, Skylar Honaker, Alysa Howard, Kelsey Roberts, Whitney Durst, Tessa Rockhold and Alisa Ord.

Class of 2021 graduates to receive an Honors Diploma include: Jake Barber, Olivia Barber, Layna Catlett, Jenna Chadwell, Whitney Durst, Jonna Epple, Ashton Guthrie, Skylar Honaker, Alysa Howard, McKenzie Long, Brianna Nutter, Alisa Ord, Kelsey Roberts, Kennadi Rockhold, Tessa Rockhold, and KayCee Schreckengost.

Jenna Chadwell was the WSAZ Best of the Class representative.

Class of 2021 National Honor Society members were Jake Barber, Matthew Blanchard, Natalie Browning, Layna Catlett, Whitney Durst, Jonna Epple, Ashton Guthrie, Skylar Honaker, Alysa Howard, Blake Newland, Brianna Nutter and Kelsey Roberts.

Hunter Corwin-Cline, a member of the Class of 2021 who passed away earlier this year, was recognized with the OHSAAs Courageous Student Award. Athletic Director Josh Fogle stated that the award recognized the strength, courage, and ability to overcome challenges which Hunter had shown during his life. The award was accepted by his mother Michelle Cline.

Athletic Awards

Steven Fitzgerald was recognized as the Ivan B. Walker Male Athlete of the Year. Sydney Sanders was recognized as the Ivan B. Walker Female Athlete of the Year.

Steven Fitzgerald and Ashton Guthrie received the OHSAA Archie Griffin Sportsmanship Award.

Matthew Blanchard and Jenna Chadwell received the OHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award.

Jake Barber and KayCee Schrekengost received the NFHS Award of Excellence.

US Army Reserve National Scholar-Athlete Awards were presented to Blake Newland and Whitney Durst.

Senior Athlete Awards were presented to Jake Barber, Olivia Barber, Matthew Blanchard, Layna Catlett, Jenna Chadwell, Whitney Durst, Jonna Epple, Steven Fitzgerald, Ashton Guthrie, Brad Hawk, Bruce Hawley, Alysa Howard, Derrisa Johnson, Owen Johnson, Jacey Martin, Blake Newland, William Oldaker, Alisa Ord, Conner Ridenour, Kelsey Roberts, Kennadi Rockhold, Tessa Rockhold, Sydney Sanders, KayCee Schrekengost, Faith Smeeks, Hunter Sisson and Preston Thorla.

Jim Barber was recognized with the Community Member Award.

Scholarships and additional awards

Eastern Athletic Boosters Scholarship Kelsey Roberts and Jake Barber, $1,000 each;

Emeri Connery Flying Eagle Scholarship Ashton Guthrie, $1,000;

Kevin Fick Scholarship Skylar Honaker, $1,000;

University of Rio Grande Jake Bapst Scholarship Whitney Durst, two years tuition approximately $10,000;

University of Rio Grande Robert S. Wood Scholarship Tessa Rockhold, $1,000;

4-H Cords Whitney Durst, Steven Fitzgerald, and McKenzie Long;

Jordan Hardwick Memorial Scholarship Tessa Rockhold;

Justin Hill Memorial Scholarship Jenna Chadwell and Tessa Rockhold, $500 each;

Eagles Scout Award Jake Barber;

Eastern Music Booster Scholarship Blake Newland and Matthew Blanchard;

Eastern Music Booster Awards Blake Newland, Matthew Blanchard, Derrisa Brewer-Johnson, Brogan Holter, Kelsey Reed, Katlyn Lawson, William Oldaker, Conner Ridenour, and Hunter Sisson.

ELEA Schoalrship Brad Hawk, Blake Newland and Nicole Bean (Athens High School), $500 each;

Board of Education Scholarships Valedictorian Scholarship, Jenna Chadwell, $550 (four years); Salutatorian Scholarship, Layna Catlett, $450 (four years); Green Scholarship, Jonna Epple, $425 (four years); White Scholarship, Skylar Honaker, $350 (two years);

William and Wilma Williams Scholarship Sydney Sanders and Whitney Durst, $750 each for four years;

Bill Call Scholarship Blake Newland, $2,100;

Lewis Parker Scholarship Alysa Howard, $1,000;

OVEC Kyger Creek Science Scholarship Jonna Epple, $450;

Eichinger Family Scholarship Layna Catlett and Alysa Howard, $2,500 each;

Hills Classic Cars Cruisin Saturday Night Car Show Scholarship Blake Newland, $1,000;

Washington State Community College Presidential Scholarship Skylar Honaker and Alisa Ord, $2,000 each per year;

Marshall University Opportunity Grant Alysa Howard, $2,000 per year;

Holzer Science Award Jonna Epple, $450;

Anatomy and Physiology Award Jonna Epple;

Calculus Kelsey Roberts;

Trigonometry Olivia Barber;

Transition to College Math Natalie Browning.

Sydney Sanders receives the Ivan B. Walker Female Athlete of the Year award from Athletic Director Josh Fogle.

Steven Fitzgerald receives the Ivan B. Walker Male Athlete of the Year award from Athletic Director Josh Fogle.

Hunter Corwin-Cline, a member of the Class of 2021 who passed away earlier this year, was honored with the Courageous Student Award.

Skylar Honaker receives the Board of Education White Scholarship from board member Jessica Staley.

Michelle Cline, the mother of Hunter Corwin-Cline, accepts the Courageous Student Award from Athletic Director Josh Fogle in memory of her son Hunter.

Jake Barber was presented the Eagle Scout award and cords by Floyd Ridenour.

Jonna Epple receives the anatomy and physiology award and Holzer Science Award from Ginger Wills.

Members of the Eastern National Honor Society received their gold cords.

Whitney Durst, Steven Fitzgerald and McKenzie Long, 4-H members, received green cords to be worn at graduation from Carolyn Kesterson.

Tessa Rockhold receives the Jordan Hardwick Memorial Scholarship from Rebecca Birt.

Tessa Rockhold receives the University of Rio Grande Robert S. Wood Scholarship from Michelle Kennedy.

Kelsey Roberts receives the Eastern Athletic Booster Scholarship from Josh Fogle.

Eagles receive scholarships, awards

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Physiology

Bizarre ‘stomach’ case put Plattsburgh on the map – Plattsburgh Press Republican

May 11, 2021 medical

PLATTBURGH -- French-Canadian Alexis St. Martin returned several times to the United States, where hundreds of physiological experiments were conducted on him by Dr. William Beaumont,The Father of Gastric Physiology.

CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH

In 1833, Beaumont's notes and drawings were consolidated in a book, Experiments and Observations of the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion published by by F. P. Allen, a local newspaper publisher in Plattsburgh.

The book was later published in Great Britain, France, Germany and Scotland.

Dr. Paolo Fedi of Beaumont Gastroenterology Services was able to secure a first-edition copy of the rare tome.

The book was poorly published because this was a newspaper, Fedi said.

It was not a publication that was done in a bound book. Beaumont never used any of the important universities at that time. He never connected with them. So this book, a few copies remained.

Medical interest surged in Beaumont's research and his study of St. Martin.

Everybody wanted him to come to their place, but this guy refused to connect further, Fedi said.

He went into Canada and disappeared from any public venue. He didn't want to have anything anymore.

SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE

St. Martin would not meet in St. Louis with Beaumont, whowas stationed there in 1830 and was appointed Surgeon at Jefferson Barrack and later the Arsenal.

About 1835, he took up his residence in St. Louis and two or three years later he resigned from the Army and took up private practice, according to his obituary.

Beaumont lived in St. Louis 19 years, where he was appointed Professor of Surgery at Saint Louis University's Medical Department.

He died (April 25, 1853) after a slip on the ice while he was going to see a patient, Fedi said.

Beaumont is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis as his wife, Deborah Greene Beaumont (1799-1870) and their daughter, Sarah Beaumont Keim (1825-1913).

Their son, Israel Greene Beaumont (1829-1901 is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Living in Plattsburgh here, he had an office where the store that is now called Ashley Furniture is, Fedi said.

He had an office and practice there. There is a plaque there that was placed by the Medical Society, I think in the '70s.

After his publication, he was able to determine that the stomach is able to digest food because it produces acid. They called it at the time muratic acid. Now, it's what is called hydrochloric acid. Before that we did not know the stomach was producing acid. The science at the time held food sat or putrefied in the stomach.

Beaumont's experiments with St. Martin proved and demonstrated otherwise.

That made an explosion of research everywhere, Fedi said.

His work was really fundamental to the understanding of the digestion of the GI tract.

He was a great observer. He was able to kind of look at the stomach and he realized that the weather, the stress of different things was able to affect the stomach of the GI tract, illnesses.

So when Alexis was drinking too much, they were able to see that his stomach wasn't really healthy, and it was taking much longer to digest than what was normal.

The pioneering medical researcher also noticed similar outcomes for the effects of tobacco on the stomach.

Beaumont put Plattsburgh on the map for medical history because at that time there was not really major hospital or any other things here, Fedi said.

Because of the Army base and him, it became an important site.

PARTED WAYS

St. Martin, born April 8, 1802 in Berthierville, Quebec, died June 24, 1880 in Saint-Thomas de Joilette in Quebec.

The wood chopper fathered 22 children, and his burial site remained secret until 1962.

He was so worried that somebody would come and get even when he was dead, he left a will that stated his body should be left to decompose for four or five days before he was put in the ground and one should know where the body would be, Fedi said.

Alexis Bidagan dit St-Martin is buried at St. Thomas Parish Cemetery in Joliette, Quebec.

A great-niece of his made it public that he was actually buried in the cemetery of a specific church, so they were able to put a tombstone with his name and other things," Fedi said.

"It is just outside of Montreal.

Beaumont name's graces the Beaumont Hall Science Building at SUNY Plattsburgh, the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, and the largest health care system in Michigan.

It's still amazing that many people do not know anything about this history, Fedi said.

I have medical practice called Beaumont. Many people are like 'You're Italian, why do you use this French name?'

I love history. I'm fascinated with the idea that I can use his name for a practice of the GI tract.

Email Robin Caudell:

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Bizarre 'stomach' case put Plattsburgh on the map - Plattsburgh Press Republican

Physiology

New method shows that tau forms small aggregates as part of the body’s normal physiology – News-Medical.Net

May 11, 2021 medical

It turns out that not all build-ups of tau protein are bad, and a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania developed a method to show that. Using mammalian cell models, the researchers combined extremely high-resolution microscopy with machine learning to show that tau actually forms small aggregates as a part of the body's normal physiology.

Through this, they could distinguish between the aggregates occurring under healthy conditions from the ones associated with neurological diseases, potentially opening the door to screening for treatments that might break apart harmful aggregates. This research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

"There aren't many tools that can visualize small, pathological protein aggregates within cells," said the study's senior author, Melike Lakadamyali, PhD, an associate professor of Physiology. "But through machine learning informed by super-resolution microscopy, we believe we've been able to show that tau forms both normal physiological aggregates and distinct pathological aggregates. In doing so, we created a useful method that could be the basis for new research into the appropriate treatments for tau-related pathologies."

Tau is a protein that attaches to the microtubule structure of axons - which act much like highways in nerve cells. Previously, tau aggregates had been thought to only form once tau falls off the microtubules. These have been associated with some neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. However, it turns out that small tau aggregates can also form outside disease conditions.

Intrinsically, there is value in being able to tell which tau aggregates are a part of a healthy person's nervous system, and which have formed harmful aggregates. Unfortunately, there has not been a process sensitive enough to make that distinction yet inside cells. So we set out to create one using mammalian cell models."

Melina Theoni Gyparaki, Study Lead Author adn Doctoral Student in Lakadamyali's Lab

First, the researchers used extremely high resolution microscopes capable of looking at single molecules to differentiate physiological and pathological oligomers (molecular formations). Monomers, dimers and trimers, which are oligomers made up of one, two, and three tau molecules, respectively, were most likely to end up associated with healthy physiological conditions because they were associated with microtubules and regular function.

When the team looked at tau structures associated with a mammalian cell model approximating frontotemporal dementia with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) - a disease associated with tau aggregation - the structures were larger and more complex. These appeared to be the pathological tau aggregates that broke off.

With the differences in configuration established, the researchers created a machine learning algorithm to classify the pathological tau aggregates by shape alone. Additionally, they used antibodies that can detect and differentiate when the tau aggregates become "hyper-phosphorylated" - when they pick up a lot of phosphate groups and tend to harmfully break off. Combining these methods showed that tau containing phosphate groups on certain amino-acids was more likely to form linear fibrils, a thin structure, as opposed to other shapes of tau aggregates.

"The method we developed to identify tau aggregates is not yet a diagnostic tool, but we think it would be a useful research tool for anyone interested in studying the mechanisms that lead to pathological protein oligomerization in neurodegenerative disease," Lakadamyali said.

Tau aggregates aren't the only ones that this method could be used to classify, either. There's an opportunity to use it on other potentially pathological protein build-ups, such as alpha-synuclein, which is associated with Parkinson's disease, or huntingtin, related to Huntington's disease. It could also be used to screen for potential treatments for these conditions that don't harm the body's regular protein complexes.

The team is now studying potential mechanisms for clearing tau aggregates and determining what other pathways could be helpful in this regard.

"We are also further using the method we devised to visualize tau aggregates in human postmortem brain tissue slices from Alzheimer's disease to determine the role of tau's post-translational modifications in aggregation," Lakadamyali said.

Source:

Journal reference:

Gyparaki, M. T., et al. (2021) Tau forms oligomeric complexes on microtubules that are distinct from tau aggregates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021461118.

Physiology

The Answer to the Andorians Blue Skin is in Their Blood – Heavy.com

May 11, 2021 medical

YouTubeAndorians from "Star Trek: Enterprise"

The blue-skinned Andorians are one of the most distinctive species in the Star Trek universe. Though the appearance of the species has changed significantly from show to show, a few characteristics have remained consistent. Andorians have small forehead ridges, a pair of antennae, white hair and bright blue skin.

The Andorians were first introduced in the episode Journey to Babel from Star Trek: The Original Series. Veteran Star Trek writer Dorothy Fontana created the species specifically for the episode.

Her original notes revealed little about the species, though they did reveal why they were blue. However, her explanation is very different than the reason that became part of the Star Trek canon.

Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images

When Star Trek was brand new in the 1960s, the writers got the opportunity to create new species all the time. Each of the different species that fans are familiar with today was created from scratch by the writers. In fact, many of them were created by Fontana herself.

Often, these new species were born from an interesting concept or makeup idea. This was the case with the Andorians.

A makeup and costume memo Fontana wrote for Journey to Babel stated, Andorians are pale blue. Because.

Fontana didnt include much more information about the Andorian physiology, other than their antennae, or provide a further reason for their distinctive appearance. Few details were included about their culture either, with the exception of the fact that they were fierce warriors.

For decades, the Andorians were rarely seen in Star Trek shows. They made a couple of appearances in Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation but were completely absent from both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.One likely reason for the lack of Andorians was the complicated makeup, which was both costly and time-consuming.

Because the Andorians appeared so rarely, there werent any opportunities to learn about their physiology or culture until Star Trek: Enterprise. Showrunners Rick Berman and Brannon Braga decided that they wanted to bring the Andorians back in the prequel show and make them a major part of the series. They worked with the visual effects department to completely redesign the makeup and antennae. The result was a much more believable and striking species.

Bringing the Andorians back also meant expanding their backstory and making them a more complex species. According to The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, the Enterprise writing staff, with Fred Dekker taking the creative lead, was tasked with creating all the details about the Andorians that were left out of the previous series. They fleshed out the Andorian physiology, psychology, and culture episode by episode.

In one of the Andorian-centric episodes, United, the Andorians blue skin was finally given a canonical explanation. During that episode, Lieutenant Talas was fatally wounded. The blood from her wounds was the same shade of blue as her skin. This suggests that the Andorians skin is somewhat translucent, allowing the pigment of the blood to show through.

This canonical explanation doesnt fit with the physiology of other alien species in the Trekverse. The Vulcans and Romulans have green blood, but their skin doesnt reflect the color of their blood. Klingons usually have red blood, though in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, they inexplicably have pink blood. Klingon skin color is almost always brown, with the exception of the Albino in DS9 and the albinos in Star Trek: Discovery. So, their skin doesnt reflect their blood color either.

In humans, skin color has nothing to do with the color of the blood. According to the Smithsonian, human pigmentation is the result of melanin. The more melanin, the darker the skin, the less melanin the lighter the skin. Since Vulcans, Romulans, and Klingons all have skin colors that have nothing to do with the color of their blood, it follows that their skin color is the result of an alien equivalent of melanin. If the Andorians really do get the color of their skin from their blood, it follows that their skin doesnt have its own pigmentation.

However, this explanation doesnt even make sense within the canon created by Enterprise. In the episode The Aenar, a subspecies of Andorians called Aenar were discovered by Shran and Archer. They were considered a myth by most Andorians since they were isolated to the harshest environments of the planet.

The Aenar have white skin with just a hint of blue in it. They were described as albino Andorians, which implies that their skin lacked pigmentation entirely. Since the Aenar evolved from the Andorians, this suggests that the Andorians do, in fact, have pigmented skin. So, the color of their blood shouldnt impact the color of their skin.

Whether it makes sense or not, the established in world canon is that Andorians blue blood makes their skin blue. Of course, the real reason is that Fontana just felt like making a blue alien.

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Physiology

Luke Heckmann, UT21 Senior – UT News – UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

May 11, 2021 medical

Going up to the hives was always a thrilling, but also exhaustingly hot, experience, Heckmann says. We would wear those big white beekeeper suits with the meshed veil to protect ourselves, and we would use smoke canisters to get the bees to fly into the hive and make it simpler to open and remove frames.

As an undergraduate, Heckmann was part of the Moran Lab, which was investigating ways to protect honeybee health for thriving ecosystems. Researchers focused on studying a particular species of bacteria living within the bees guts.

While working directly with and gathering data from the bees, Heckmann edited circular rings of bacterial DNA known as plasmids. Ultimately, Heckmann and the group discovered a way to genetically modify that gut bacteria to enable the cells of bees to fight off deadly viruses and mites.

It was his biggest and proudest accomplishment yet, taking multiple years of work and an enormous number of hours from many different people, Heckmann says. So it was just a huge, huge achievement for all of us really after so many years.

Later, Heckmann even received funding from a Undergraduate Research Fellowship to further expand upon that research. And even after COVID-19 hit, he was able to continue that work remotely.

Research has formed his undergraduate experience, but Heckmann says his ultimate goal is to become a doctor. Never boxed in, he actually aspired to be an engineer growing up. He was always interested in the mechanics and moving parts of anything and everything, but in high school, Heckmann took a transformative anatomy and physiology course, opening his eyes to a future in medicine.

It wasnt until that anatomy class I took, where I really started seeing things from a different perspective. You sort of see that the body is almost like the most finely tuned machine, Heckmann says.

Heckmann, born in Oklahoma but basically an Austin native after having moved here when he was 2, says it was a no-brainer applying and committing to UT Austin for its academic rigor and great location. Upon arrival, he quickly combined his interests in engineering and the natural sciences to pursue biomedical engineering.

Heckmann says some of his favorite courses were Organic Chemistry I and II, which focused on studying carbon, the building block of life, and Tumor Biology, which investigated core aspects of cancer pathology, treatment and epidemiology with molecular biosciences professor Jon Huibregtse.

Glancing over at a whiteboard in his room, he says it is filled with notes from that course. I still have a bunch of diagrams because theyre just so satisfying to look at, he says, laughing. That class was incredible and really pertinent because cancer is unfortunately so common.

As a graduating senior, Heckmann cannot recommend doing research as an undergraduate enough. Id honestly encourage everyone to try and seek out a research opportunity. He says: I learned a ton from conducting research and being a part of a lab and a group of people, or a community, if you will. A lot of things I learned in the lab werent even research-related, but just related to life in general.

Looking past graduation, Heckmann is ready to bring his skills to medical school. The great thing about UT is that it does a really good job at equipping us with different skills and different opportunities that are life-lasting. When experiments fail, I had to adapt over and over again in the face of new information, and that adaptability will be vital for me as a future physician.

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