My boss sits me down in this comfortable optometrist chair and asks me to remove my glasses and find the lowest line I can read on the eye chart. He then hands me a pair of pinhole glasses and asks me to repeat the exercise. Lo and behold, I can read smaller print. A certified … Continue reading
Exome: the part of the DNA that is transcribed into RNA and that remains after the RNA molecule undergoes liposuction. Well, not actual liposuction. DNA is like a book of blueprints, each blueprint being a gene; RNA represents a photocopy of a particular blueprint. The analogy, while useful, breaks down in the following way: the … Continue reading
It may seem as if flu viruses get chosen based on a sluggish and never-ending game of bingo. H1N1? … Does anyone have H1N1? The next number is… H7N9. Please check your cards, the number is H7N9…. H5N1… do we have a bingo? Please bring your card in to be validated. The prizes tonight include … Continue reading
As I write this, British multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is conducting a study in my backyard. No, there are no lab-coat-clad scientists bagging petunias in my garden. I don’t have a garden, much less a backyard. (And, for what it’s worth, I think “Bagging Petunias” would be an awesome band name) By backyard, I mean … Continue reading
As medical research pushes back the veil on the causes of certain well-known diseases, we are sometimes surprised at the unlikely culprits. It sounds obvious today, for instance, that cigarette smoking can cause lung cancer: one can easily picture the smoke snaking down to the lungs and leaving a nasty deposit. Sometimes, however, the connection … Continue reading
-omics: this bugger is tough to adequately describe. In short, it represents all the fields of study in biology that concern themselves with every molecule of a certain type. For instance, the field of “genomics” will look at the entire genome and not at individual genes. The field of “proteomics” will study every protein in, … Continue reading
Dr. Ioannidis is a hero of mine. In fact, he’s a hero of many a scientist who has found him- or herself shaking their heads upon finding out how the contemporary scientific establishment functions. He came to Montreal in October to give a public science talk on the lack of reproducibility in the scientific literature. … Continue reading
Tumour suppressor: a gene whose regular function is to inhibit the division of a cell. When the expression of this gene is blocked, the cell divides much more than it should, which can lead to cancer. A useful analogy is that of a car. When the expression of a tumour suppressor is disrupted, it can … Continue reading
So, my beautiful baby girl is almost a year old. Congratulations! We’re so proud. But, you know what, we put our foot down with our paediatrician who wants our beautiful, healthy baby girl to get her MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) shot. Wait, what? My girlfriend and I both know that vaccines have been linked to autism. That’s … Continue reading
Oncogene: a gene whose regular function is to promote the division of a cell. When the expression of this gene is increased, the cell divides much more than it should, which can lead to cancer. A useful analogy is that of a car. When the expression of an oncogene is disrupted, it can be like … Continue reading
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