Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/monoclonal antibody therapy

  • An antibody therapy for hemophilia A?

    …, or block inappropriate cell signaling (as in Herceptin). Other antibody designs use the antibody as a “guided missile,” targeting drug or radioisotope ”warheads” to cancerous cells.  On Sept. 30, though, a team of Japanese researchers at Chugai Pharmaceutical, reported an example of a new kind of antibody application, and it’s pretty slick. The paper concerns a novel treatment concept for hemophila A, an X…

    Authored by on October 12, 2012

  • The Amazing Antibody and its Therapeutic Potential

    …ll recognize and attach itself to the invader, which is scientifically referred to as an antigen.  When an antibody attaches to an antigen, it signals to our body to get rid of it.  Amazingly, each antibody can only recognize 1 antigen, which is why we need so many different types of antibodies!      To get a better idea of how antibodies work, it is important to learn their basic structure.  Antibodies are ‘Y’ shaped proteins, and have both co…

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  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …ll selection of different materials: bricks, mortar, iron, glass, and wood. Arranged in different ways, these few materials can yield a huge variety of structures. We encountered functional groups and the SPHONC in Chapter 3. These components form the four categories of molecules of life. These Big Four biological molecules are carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. They can have many roles, from giving an organism structure to be…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • From spiders to breast cancer: Leslie Brunetta talks candidly about her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up

    …g and fatigue, but I was lucky that I didn’t experience either. Because I’m a freelancer, the time investment wasn’t a burden for me. I’m also lucky living where I live, because I could walk to the hospital. It was a pleasant 3-mile round-trip walk, and I think the walking helped me a lot physically and mentally. DXS: And now to the chemo. My interest in interviewing you about your experience began with a reference you made on Twitter to “chemo b…

    Authored by on January 31, 2012

  • Towards better drug development, fewer side effects?

    …interesting than its title.  Those trees on the right are called SPADE trees. They map cellular responses to different  stimuli in a collection of human blood cells. Credit: (c) 2012 Nature America [Nat Biotechnol, 30:858--67, 2012] Here’s the basic idea: The current methods drug developers use to screen potential drug compounds –- typically a blend of high-throughput imaging and biochemical assays – aren’t perfect. If they were, d…

    Authored by on September 24, 2012

  • Pregnancy 101: The science behind the wand of destiny

    …om laughing so hard, let us get back to the science. The first “slice of bread” is called the reaction zone, the “sandwich filling” is called the test zone, and the “last slice of bread” is called the control zone (see figure 2). Each of these zones is coated with capture antibodies, but differ from each other in how they work.  The antibodies on the reaction zone will capture only hCG and will detach from the strip upon exposure to urine. The…

    Authored by on November 26, 2011

  • Leaky gut and wonky immune response might be double whammy leading to inflammatory bowel disease (in mice)

    A case of ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease.Photo via Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Samir. A two-hit punch in the gut might explain why some people find themselves alone among their closest relatives in having inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The double gut punches come in the form of a compromised intestinal wall coupled with a poorly behaved immune system, say Emory researchers, whose work using mice was publishe…

    Authored by on September 13, 2012

  • Anorexia nervosa, neurobiology, and family-based treatment

    hen, and only then, patients would choose to resume eating. If they were still alive. Bruch’s observations dictated eating-disorders treatments for decades, treatments that led to spectacularly ineffective results. Only about 35% of people with anorexia recovered; another 20% died, of starvation or suicide; and the rest lived with some level of chronic illness for the rest of their lives. Not a great track record, overall, and especially devastat…

    Authored by on August 10, 2012

  • After Newtown missteps, journalists get guidelines

    …almost twice as likely to say that they don’t want to live or work near a person with mental illness if they read an article about a person with mental illness involved in a mass shooting, according to a study published March 20 in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Interestingly, this tendency is the same even if the article avoids any mention of mental illness. This may be because this link between violence and mental illness is deeply engrain…

    Authored by on March 27, 2013

  • The things we never leave behind

    …I knew, but everything was changing. I was just one grade level away from learning from my peer group that I was the poor kid. The one with the single mother. The one who probably wouldn’t make it though the system. In 3rd grade, I had head lice and missed a field trip. In 4th grade, a popular girl put a Jolly Rancher in my hair. In 5th grade, I was the girl in Wal-Mart clothes. In 6th grade, all my friends were boys. In 7th grade, I ate a…

    Authored by on April 26, 2013

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