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Incidence rate of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is one of the most common malignant diseases diagnosed in children. It represents nearly one third of all paediatric cancers and 74% of leukaemic disease in children from age 0-19 years. In 2010 the American Society of Cancer (ACS) predicted that 5,330 new cases of ALL would be detected and that 1,420 of these cases would result in death [Society, 2010]. Causes of ALL The cause of ALL remains largely unknown, although potential risk factors include environmental factors, inherited genetic mutations and viral exposure, howev …

By Juan Quintana, PhD student, University of Edinbrugh What are Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)? The World Health Organization (WHO) defines NTDs as a group of communicable, poverty-promoting diseases, which affect more than one billion people worldwide (Herricks et al., 2017). These diseases are primarily concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in regions of South America and Asia (Herricks et al., 2017). The stigma surrounding these diseases, and their impact on children and women’s health, and worker productivity, are all factors that negatively contribute to the economic burden in these countries (Tur …

By Shane Houston, PhD Candidate Queen’s University Belfast Cancer is an age old adversary of the human race. This out-of-control growth of abnormal cells has been a shadow over human health throughout history. Some of the earliest evidence of cancer stretches back to Egypt and the time of the pharaohs [1]. As time has marched on, so has our understanding of the disease, a field which came to be known as Oncology [1]. Early attempts at treating the disease most often involved surgical removal, followed by the hope the disease would not return [1]. Invariably it did. The current trend of research in cancer therapy is now leaning towards personalized medicine, a treatment approach bas …

What is preeclampsia? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in ten pregnant women is affected by hypertensive disorders, and preeclampsia alone accounts for one in seven maternal deaths (1). Preeclampsia is defined as a hypertensive disorder that can complicate pregnancy after 20 weeks of gestation although it is debatable whether critical pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress responses are triggered in certain individuals nearly after conception. If the condition is progressive or left unattended, it can be further complicated by neurological dysregulations, a condition known as eclampsia. Preeclampsia cla …

The Immune System The immune system is a host defence system comprising many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease. In order to function well, the immune system must detect a wide variety of agents, known as pathogens which can range from viruses to parasitic worms, and must have the ability to distinguish them from the host's healthy tissue. In most species the immune system consists of an innate and an adaptive immune response. The innate immune response is stimulated when a pathogen successfully enters the host. It is the first line of defence and is required for the elimination of t …

Hydroxychloroquine: Potential Treatment for COVID-19 What is Hydroxychloroquine? Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) belongs a family of medicines called antimalarials, which are also classified as disease-modifying anti-rheumatic agents, or DMARDs. Hydroxychloroquine was previously used to prevent and cure malaria. However, it has also been recognised to treat various other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis (inflammatory disease of the lungs and lymph glands), lupus and Sjogren's syndrome whereby the white blood cells of the body affect the tear and saliva glands, thereby, reducing the amo …

Over the past few years I have traversed through academia in a few different guises, first as a PhD student for about 5 years, then onto the traditional route of a post-doc, followed by a sales representative for a life sciences company and finally as the co-founder of ELISA Genie. It’s been a great journey and I’m constantly learning as I move through different facets of working with academics.Currently I’m in year 3 of running my own scientific start-up, it’s a blast, I travel the world, work on new projects every week, attend conferences, but the most interesting part is where we help people with their research. To take a few steps back, I was extremely chatty during my PhD, having …

Cell Signalling Cell signalling pathways have an important role in integrating a plethora of extracellular and intracellular signals to produce a controlled optimal output of signals, and results in the regulation of specific cellular responses. This is crucial for the homeostasis of the cell, and the deregulation of signalling pathways has been related to a number of diseases including cancer (Choudhary and Mann 2010).  Receptor signalling Cells integrate signals from the extracellular matrix by expressing specific receptors on the plasma membrane that can be activated by a specific ligand. Receptors then transduce the ex …

Like needles in a haystack, interesting speakers that bring charisma and rock n roll to their talks are hard to come by. No matter what the research interests of the audience, these speakers hypnotize the audience with their funny analogies and the confidence in their data. Leaving the audience inspired to run back to the lab, read more papers, carry on into post-docing or become a PI. Below I discuss how to be a confident speaker. Preparing scientific talks For these speakers, research can appear stress-free, with negative data some of their most interesting slides, and when they have no answers for their data, they blame serendipity on how they make so …

After probably a round or two of interviews and a PhD in your pocket you would think that proving yourself in your new lab would not be an issue. After all, they did hire you because you were the best candidate for the position and you published some seminal papers on the topic in the months prior. However, from day one as a new post-doc in a lab you have something to prove. Whether it’s getting the first experiment right or it’s presenting at your first lab meeting, not making an initial good impression in the lab can lead to some painful experimental scrutiny and hardship in the months to come. It might not help that you have just inherited a project from the previous post-doc that …

When PhDs and Post-Docs start in new lab they have the best intentions to keep their lab books up to date with notes, new research methods, data, and protocol information. These best efforts usually last for about a week, or for as long as they can see their professor walking about the lab. However, sooner or later diligence is lost and maintaining up to date notes on research methods and protocols happens once every blue moon. Suddenly, stacks of western blots and PCR print-outs build up in drawers, lab books and lab benches, with barely legible labels, saved only by the dates from the PCR print-offs. Eventually, a random inspection from your professor or a looming lab meeting inspir …

We know it gets tiring being in the lab every day, especially with the evenings getting darker and gloomier. So, to get you in the festive spirit, we're holding a competition to win money to throw a Christmas lab party! We have two prizes - one of €300 and another of €150. All you have to do to enter is write us an 800 word blog post on one of the following topics: Cell metabolism Immunology Signalling Cancer research The submissions will be posted on our site with credit. Some examples of previous submissions can be found here: Auto-inflammatory diseases and genetics Chemokines and Chemokine Receptors NLR inflammasomes, the enigmatic drivers of Inflammation Entries can be sent to …

The lab can be one of the greatest places in the world to make live long friends. Spending countless hours in a tissue culture room late into the middle of the night, sharing similar frustrations when experiments don’t work or talking about how your PI does not have a clue what they are talking about can really bring people together. This is also compounded by the fact that you will spend some of the most formative years of your life with these people. They’ll be the first people you see in the morning, the last people you see at night, and the people that you will spend most of your time socializing outside of the lab with, bullying in the Laboratory and workplace can however change …

Shane O’Grady, PhD student, RCSI Cancer is a disease that will, unfortunately, touch all of our lives at some point, directly or indirectly. Despite decades of gradual, hard-won incremental improvements to available treatment options, survival is still strongly associated with the stage at which a tumour is first detected: patients diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer have a 5 year survival rate approximately 4 times lower than those presenting in the clinic with a stage 1 tumour [1]. The ability to detect breast cancer at an early, more easily treated stage has been a significant contributor to improved survival rates observed in recent decades. Th …

Shelly Pathak PhD candidate, University of Leeds SAIDs Systemic Auto-inflammatory diseases (SAIDs) have been defined as a group of mainly inherited disorders due to ‘abnormal hyper activation of the innate immune system’ (1). These conditions lack the characteristic features of an adaptive immune response, such as high titre antibodies or antigen specific T cells, usually seen in classical autoimmune diseases (2). Periodic Fever Syndromes (PFS) are a branch of conditions encompassed within SAIDs and form the generally more well-known and characterised conditions. Periodic Fever Syndromes It was 1997 when the term ‘auto-inflammatory disease’ was f …

I have been in the situation that I’m sure many of us have. I work on genes, which if you name to any right-minded individual, sound like a random string of nonsensical gibberish. So, maybe unsurprisingly, I have very little interest in writing a blog piece only about the particular genes I work on, so let’s look at AML in a wider context (and then maybe I’ll sneak in my research later). Acute myeloid leukaemia (or AML as it is more commonly known), is the most common form of acute leukaemia in adults (Eriksson et al. 2015). This disease involves the uncontrolled accumulation of progenitors, that give rise to myeloid-type white blood cells, within the bone marrow. The accumulati …

By Anusha Senevirante, Post-Doctoral researcher, Imperial College London With non-communicable diseases (or NCDs, which include heart disease, diabetes, cancer) now responsible for the most deaths worldwide, large investments into research on these diseases are helping us understand their causes. Many of these diseases have something in common, they involve chronic inflammation. Cells normally triggered by the immune system to fight infection, are persistently activated by endogenous factors within the body, eventually causing damage to bodily tissues and beginning the disease processes involved in the development of diabetes, cancer and atheroscl …

Platinum based cancer drugs Despite nearly 50% of all anti-cancer treatments being platinum-based, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutics beyond those currently in use.1 The first platinum-based anti-cancer chemotherapeutic, cisplatin, was granted clinical approval in 1978. Only two further platinum drugs have gained full global approval namely carboplatin and oxaliplatin.2 Although hugely successful, the widespread application and efficacy of platinum drugs are hindered by their toxic side effects, their limited activity against many human cancers and their susceptibility to acquired drug resistance.3 As a consequence, many …

I'll start this post off with a story. When I was half way through my PhD and I had found my passion for science communication, I approached my supervisor for the first time to ask “Can I have this day off to go do this science outreach event?” And this was the first time I had the reply “But don’t you think you should be in the lab rather than doing that?”Now I know I am not the only one in this situation - wanting to do some public engagement but being told by their supervisors that it isn’t important. So, I thought I would share 10 reasons that you should do an outreach event this year - or any year! - so you can justify it to your PhD supervisor the next time that they try to s …

By Zoe Angel, PhD Student, Ulster University Prostate cancer is now the commonest cancer in men and it is the fifth leading cause of death (1). Researchers have strived to understand its development and extraordinary progress has been made in the last 50 years. Better treatments for this disease have been developed and the outlook is steadily improving for prostate cancer patients. Despite this, significant challenges remain in prostate cancer therapy. It remains difficult to accurately predict which tumours are most aggressive and which will respond to treatment. Furthermore, chemotherapeutic approaches have mainly consisted of blocking sex ho …

Over the past few years momentum has gained in the scientific publishing community for researchers to publish their data in open access scientific journals. Open access to published research offers a significant social and economic benefit and ensures scientists and the general public are up to date with the latest scientific discoveries. Currently the Wellcome Trust , Research Councils UK and NIH expect authors to maximise their opportunities to publish in open access formats, and require authors to have their work freely available up to 6 months to a year after publication depending on funding agency. However, although many authors would prefer that their work is freely available to …

Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMP) were first discovered in the 1960s by Dr.Marshall Urist, an orthopaedic surgeon at UCLA (Urist 1965). BMPs are classically associated with their roles in limb development, induction of cartilage and bone growth. However, it has been since clarified that Bone Morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are involved in many more diverse biological processes, such as stem cell and organ formation, muscle development, iron metabolism, vascular biology and cancer (D. P. Brazil et al.2015). The BMPs belong to the TGF-β superfamily and are glycosylated, extracellular matrix-associated molecules. The constituents of the BMP signalling pathway have also been implicated in d …

David Melamed, Phd Candidate, Colombia University When I started in the Kalderon Lab five years ago, I had no idea that our work would lead us to drastically revise an entire model system of adult stem cell behavior. I joined the lab straight out of college, setting forth with a wide-eyed passion for stem cell research. The lab was a perfect fit, specializing in the behavior of somatic stem cells found in the fruit fly ovary. Our cells of interest, called Follicle Stem Cells (FSCs), closely mimic the behavior of various somatic adult stem cells in mammals, including those found in the stomach and intestine. Follicle Stem C …

Millions of people are afflicted with cancer each year. 2016 statistics for the USA alone show over half a million deaths attributed to cancer 1. We have come a long way from our early understanding of cancer, and now have highly sophisticated and personalized treatments available in the 21st century. One of the major challenges facing effective treatment is detection time. Cancer detected early has a higher chance of being cured compared to a late prognosis in most cases. Modern medicine uses several tests such as MRI and CT scans, ultrasound, pathology reports etc. to gather as much information as possible. According to American Cancer Society, it takes a minimum of a few weeks fro …