That's Some Hungry Fungi! Fungus Capable of Eating Plastic Found.

Pestalotiopsis Microspore

Originally created in the 1900s, synthetic plastics have myriad uses. Plastic makes up disposable water bottles, bags, packaging, headphones, cellphones, and countless other everyday items. However, plastics are also detrimental to the environment. Incredibly durable and taking hundreds or even thousands of years to degrade, we waste alarmingly large amounts of the substance every year. The plastics that we throw out can sit in landfills for generations, seemingly impossible to get rid of. However, researchers at Yale have found a fungus from the Amazon rainforest with a rather fantastic property - it is capable of digesting polyurethane.

Known as Pestalotiopsis microspore (member of the family Amphisphaeriaceae, order Xylariales, class Sordariomycetes, subclass Xylariomycetidae, and phylum Ascomycota), the fugus was first found in Ecuador. It is able to subside solely on polyurethane and is the first fungus ever discovered that is capable of doing so. Not only is this remarkable in and of itself, but the fungus can also break down the plastic anaerobically (without oxygen). The team of scientists also found the enzyme that enables the fungus to digest the polyurethane. The researchers believe that this enzyme is a promising development in bioremediation and a huge leap forward in removing plastics from landfills.

Formation Reaction of Polyurethane 

Sources:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249216/yale_discovers_a_fungus_that_eats_plastic.html

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/rainforest-fungus-eats-plastic-potentially-solving-landfill-problems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic#Environmental_issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pestalotiopsis_microspora

Images courtesy of:

http://www.jessicastuartmusic.com/wp-content/gallery/pre-jsfew/mushroom-spores.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Polyurethane.png

Gene Therapy

A diagram explaining Gene Therapy

Imagine the treatment of a cancer patient. It is typically a long string of doctors appointments, surgeries, and medications such as chemotherapy. But what if there was a way to treat cancer with a simple injection? It seems incredible, and yet this is the aim of a new type of medical treatment called gene therapy. Not only would gene therapy treat cancer, but it could also treat cystic fibrosis, familial hypercholesterolemia, HIV/AIDS, gaucher disease, hearing loss, and could allow patients with circulatory problems in the legs to avoid amputation.

So, how would this incredible process work? It would begin on a molecular level. All of the aforementioned diseases and complications are caused by imperfections and mutations of the DNA. These are obviously very hard to treat with medications, and are typically hereditary. They can affect almost any part of the DNA. It is clearly quite hard to change a gene that is written into each and every cell in the human body, and coming up for a cure for these diseases has always been quite daunting. This is where gene therapy comes in. Gene therapy is the use of genes as treatment or prevention for diseases.

Using genes as a treatment? As fantastical as it sounds, this is the reality of gene therapy.  A "normal" gene is put into the genome in place of an "abnormal" gene which causes a disease or disfunction. This is done with several different treatments which fall under two headings: Germ-line gene therapy and somatic gene therapy. Germ-line gene therapy is when genes are introduced into reproductive cells or into embryos, so that the child will not have genetic abnormalities. On the other hand, somatic gene therapy is when therapeutic genes are inserted into cells to replace the current DNA or to make a protein/substance that is not present or not working in the patient. Most current research is developing somatic gene therapy.

Somatic gene therapy usually works via a "vector". The vector delivers the new gene to the patients cells. These vectors are almost always a virus which has had the infectious DNA replaced with the proper gene. These are either a retrovirus (such as HIV, which works well in dividing cells), an Adenovirus (such as the common cold, which works well in non-dividing cells), an Adeno-associated virus (which inserts DNA at a specific singular site on chormosome 19) or Herpes simplex virus (typically causes cold sores). There are new ways of developing gene therapy, including introducing the DNA directly to the cells, creating an artificial lipid with a water-based core which can travel directly through a cell membrane to deliver the gene, chemically linking the DNA to a molecule that attaches to the cell receptors, or even adding a 47th chromosome, which would not affect the cell in any way other than changing the defective gene.

Like any advancement in science, there are some questions and possible complications that come up when discussing gene therapy. If we put aside the omnipresent issue of "playing god", there are still a few problems. The primary problem is the use of viruses. Many scientists and researchers fear that one of the viruses injected into the DNA will go awry. Instead of being completely removed, the original virus would still retain its own DNA and begin infecting people. Although this is a justified concern, I believe that the benefits far outweigh the risks. If the makers of the injections are thorough in their testing, the company can have a product that is both safe and infinitely helpful to the modern world.

Check out this game about gene therapy!

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/therapy/genetherapy

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/gene_therapy.aspx

http://autocww.colorado.edu/~toldy2/E64ContentFiles/VirusesMoneransAndProtists/RetrovirusB1.html

Allergic to your Cell Phone?

When you think about cell phones, what comes to mind? Texting, perhaps, the iphone, or even radiation. But an allergic reaction? In the past few years, scientists have been finding rashes on the faces of teenagers and adults, along the jawline. The cause of these rashes was a mystery, until recently. The New York Times released an article this Tuesday, which linked the rash toNickel found in cell phone casing.

According to Web MD, "A nickel allergy is a skin reaction that develops after exposure to nickel or items containing the metal." This essentially means that a nickel allergy is caused by touching or wearing nickel for a long period of time. In America, 3% of men have this allergy and 20% of women. This is because many items of jewelry contain nickel. Therefore, the jewelry wearers are more exposed to the nickel. This is the same process that occurs with cell phone users. However, with a cell phone user it is called, "Contact dermatitis with a Nickel allergy". If a person is constantly talking on their cell phone, the face can become hypersensitive to nickel. This hypersensitivity becomes an allergy.

A nickel allergy has several, rather similar, symptoms. The most common are:

• A rash where the nickel has touched the skin
• Itching
• Red areas of skin
• Dry areas of skin (these can look like burns)
• Blisters

This allergy can come from other objects as well. Some examples are watchbands, zippers, belt buckles, hairpin, dental fillings, prosthetics, and even the frames of glasses. People with severe nickel allergies must limit their contact with some of these objects, and avoid eating oatmeal, chocolate, nuts, beans and dried fruit; which contain small amount of nickel. 

However, it is possible to treat this allergy. Doctors recommend using steroid creams, such as cortisone, and preventing any further contact by using a headset.

Link to a brief Masher video summarizing the cell phone issue:
http://www.masher.com/player.jsp?key=0dbe76c7-a2bc-cb73-63d8-0000effb001b&adscheme=0

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/health/23really.html?_r=1&ref=health
http://www.webmd.com/allergies/nickel-jewelry-allergy
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/645796.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nickel-allergy/DS00826/DSECTION=symptoms
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/178/1/23
http://allergies.about.com/b/2008/10/16/mobile-phone-allergy.htm
http://preparednesspro.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/person-on-cell-phone.jpg

Melanosomes: Dinosaurs in White, Orange, and Grey

Anchiornis huxleyi

What color was a Tyrannosaurus Rex? What about a triceratops, or a pterodactyl? Pink and yellow, or more earthy shades, like brown and grey? Since the discovery of the dinosaur, their hues, vibrant or otherwise, were a mystery. This was until the discovery of melanosomes.

Melanosomes are "pigment filled sacs" that determine the colors of the feathers of birds. In essence, the cells carry the color of the species within them, in the form of melanin. In 2009, a researcher at Yale, by the name of Dr. Prum, discovered that these melanosomes could be kept in a fossil for millions of years.

These melanosomes were so well preserved because instead of being on the outside of the feathers, they were contained within. This meant that they were protected from damage as long as the feathers remained intact.

The Yale scientists conducted studies on several ancient dinosaur feather fossils, and discovered that it was possible to determine the color of the fossil from the melanosomes. Therefore, they teamed up with paleontologists from the Beijing museum of Natural History and Peking University. These scientists were led by Fucheng Zhang. Together, they took the fossil of a Anchiornis huxleyi, which lived 150 million years ago during the "Middle Jurassic" into the "Late Jurassic". This tiny dinosaur had very long legs, which were covered with feathers (as were its arms). They took out twenty nine "chips" of the fossil to examine under a microscope, and found that these pieces contained melanosomes.

After finding the melanosomes in the dinosaurs, the scientists had to compare these melanosomes to the melanosomes found in modern birds. They already knew that this dinosaur had two different types of melanosomes, called eumelanosomes and phaeomelanosomes. Eumelanosomes are found in dark colors, such as black, grey, and brown. The phaeomelanosomes can be found in feathers that range in shade from yellow to red. However, the scientists didn't want a general guess of the colors, they wanted to find the real answers. Thus, they contacted Matthew Shawkey, a scientists who had already done in depth studies of melanosomes in living birds. They matched the melanosomes in the Anchiornis with those of other birds, and discovered that the feathers on the birds arms and legs were black and white, while its head was covered with a magnificent orange plume.

After this discovery, they tried to replicate this process with other fossils that had the "dinosaur fuzz" feathers. They were able to find the color of the Sinosauropteryx's tail (reddish with white rings). They could also make educated guesses about the pigments of the sinonithosaurus, and the confuciusornis, because their feathers were not preserved as well.

This is a remarkable study, and who knows, maybe some day we'll learn that the Tyrannosaurus Rex was bright pink!

The height of an Anchiornis compared to the height of a human being.

The sinosauropteryx

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/science/05dino.html?ref=dinosaurs
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2010/01/what_colours_were_dinosaur_feathers.php
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/02/05/dinosaurs-now-in-living-color/
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/01/28/fossil-feathers-may-preserve-dinosaur-colors/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchiornis
http://i.livescience.com/images/ig59_Sinosauropteryx_09.jpg