HIS STORY...

ENCOUNTER

 

“Home.” Tu Casa, Inc., www.slvtucasa.net/effects-of-domestic-violence-on-children.

This week, I had an encounter with a man who is currently being treated for depression. During our discussion, he stated how he was a victim of domestic violence and emotional abuse. At a young age, he constantly witnessed his parents fighting--verbally and physically--each other. Almost every night, the neighbors would call the cops on them, and his mom would claim that everything was fine. His older brother wasn't there much because he was in grad school, so he was more of a victim. This abuse went on for years until he left off to college.

During his years in college, he had night terrors, which affected his school work, his job, and his health. He went to see a physician, and he got diagnosed with anxiety and depression. During our conversation, he told me how severely depressed he gets on his worst days, and how rough his childhood was, and how he hasn't seen his family for a while, etc. While we were talking, I realized how domestic violence isn't taken seriously. In our community, we have more bystanders than we have people helping. In most cultures, this type of abuse is not even being recognized. Domestic violence is one of the most underreported crimes. This just saddens me because the impact it had on him; like it changed his world. It changed who he could have become. He did good in school, graduated middle school & high school with honors, got accepted into a good college, but it was never enough. The saddest part is he's never really himself until he takes his meds and goes for therapy.

It shouldn't hurt to be a child. I think anyone who has experienced such abuse is very brave. So, I'm writing this blog to encourage every victim of domestic abuse, and I want to say to you all that through all the pain, tears, anger, self-blame, and confusion, at some point, you will find your "AHA moment," and realize that through all those pain, frustration, anger, and hatred, YOU have been gaining the strength and remembrance of your own self. Just trust that every experience is part of God's plan for you. YOU ARE WORTHY😊

REFLECTION

Today, the class made progress on the service-learning project. We picked Behavioral Health as the first topic. In addition, we jotted down factors that will be included in the project like the definition, a creative skit/case study, resources, sign & symptoms, treatment, and environment. We also appointed who will be getting flyers and brochures done. Also, concluded that everyone will be involved in research, powerpoint and of course presentation. As of date, this is all that was discussed in class regarding the service project. 

I learned so many cool stuff this week like the unicellular eukaryotes. For some odd reason, I am fascinated by mosquitoes and the diseases they cause. The Aedes albopictus causes Zika virus, Aedes aegypti causes dengue fever, Colex causes encephalitis, Anopheles causes malaria, etc. My personal favorite is the Plasmodium-- a one-celled parasite--that's picked up by the female Anopheles mosquito. However, I will be discussing the life cycle of trypanosomiasis [sleeping sickness] transmitted by the tsetse fly.

How Do We Get Affected?

Well, the fly injects her mouth to our skin, sucks the blood as some of the parasites called trypomastigotes multiply and travel to the bloodstream, tissues, and lymph. These parasites last from months to years. Trypanosoma gambiene is characterized by 3 stages: two in procyclic trypomastigotes and metacyclic epimastigotes, and one in the host. When they reach the blood, they differentiate from fast replicating cells to dormant stumpy forms. They multiply in each stage and the cycle takes about 3 weeks or more. Here's an image that explains it:

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/sleepingsickness/biology.html

References

Barteneva, Natasha, and Marc A Muskavitch. Chemogenomics and Parasitology: Small Molecules and Cell-Based Assays to Study Infectious Processes, Oct. 2013, www.researchgate.net/figure/23260686_fig1_Fig-1-Life-cycles-of-Trypanosoma-brucei-Plasmodium-falciparum-and-Toxoplasma-gondii.

DICTIONARY

www.pinterest.com/pin/520799144388347244/.

• Genomics: Is the biological structure and function of genes in an organism. Sentence: Genomics have a huge impact in drug development. 
• Proteomics: Is the biological structure of proteins and their techniques in an organism. Sentence: Proteomics identifies the expression of proteins. 
• Chaperonins: Molecules that directly facilitate protein folding. Sentence: An example of chaperonin is GroEL--a protein found in various kinds of bacteria. 

Reference

• Barcher, Andreas. The GroEL–GroES Chaperonin Machine: A Nano-Cage for Protein Folding, 9 July 2015, www.cell.com/trends/biochemical-sciences/abstract/S0968-0004(15)00140-1.

CELL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

DICTIONARY

“Science Humor.” Pinterest, 28 Oct. 2015, www.pinterest.com/pin/520799144388347244/.

1. Gene editing: The DNA is edited [hence the name], so a DNA is replaced, deleted, or inserted in the genome of an organism with the use of engineered nucleases. Sentence: I think gene editing is unethical because with great power comes with greater responsibilites. 
2. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats): An example of gene editing is this DNA sequence in bacteria. The sequences contains pieces of DNA from the virus that attacks the bacterium. The pieces are then used by the bacteria to destroy the DNA from similar viruses during future attacks. CRISPR plays a vital role in the bacterial's defense system. With these new sequencing, there are effective changes in an organism's genome. How it works? CRISPR trancribes into short RNA sequences that are capable of guiding the system to matching sequences of DNA. When the target DNA is found, Cas 9 - one of the enzymes produced by CRISPR - binds to the DNA and cuts it, shuttng the targeted gene off. Sentence: University of California, in association with other universities, invented the genome editing tool - CRISPR.
3. RNA Interference: this is a process where RNA molecules inhibit translation by neutralizing targeted mRNA molecules. Sentence: RNA interference is a crucial process in gene therapy.

References

• Maron, Dina Fine. “Embryo Gene-Editing Experiment Reignites Ethical Debate.” Scientific American, 2 Aug. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/embryo-gene-editing-experiment-reignites-ethical-debate/.
• “Questions and Answers about CRISPR.” Broad Institute, 21 Aug. 2017, www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/questions-and-answers-about-crispr.