The First Tuesday, weird thinking, and alzheimer’s

07.07.09

So then. Tuesday was the first “real” day of our program! We learned about microscopes. Just beginning to take the first glance into a super duper microscopic world. Woohoo! So what did I have down in my personal notes? X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopes, transmission electron microscopes, and atomic force microscopes. And we even got to see some up close!

 

Well in any case, what I feel like blabbering about is a bit farther away from the topic of Visualization in Science and Art, but still vaguely connected to something we went over that day. Well, in the early morning, when Rita and Gau were presenting for us, Gau showed a clip about that one site called Foldit. I was quite intrigued and went clicky-clicky on the site just now.

 

 

And after clicking there, I found this:

How does my game playing contribute to curing diseases?”

  • Alzheimer’s: In some ways, Alzheimer’s is the disease most directly caused by proteins. A protein called amyloid-beta precursor protein is a normal part of healthy, functioning nerve cells in the brain. But to do its job, it gets cut into two pieces, leaving behind a little scrap from the middle — amyloid-beta peptide. Many copies of this peptide (short protein segment) can come together to form clumps of protein in the brain. Although many things about Alzheimer’s are still not understood, it is thought that these clumps of protein are a major part of the disease.

So yeah. So all these little nanoscale structures do crazy stuff, like causing Alzheimer’s disease. Hahaha.

But Alzheimer’s… it’s so sad. So now I feel all interested in finding a cure for Alzheimer’s… hehe

 

A quote from the Alzheimer’s Association:

“Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, and it is fatal. Today it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.”

 

Nanoscience could be answer, right? Well, there was this research paper about that! Apparently, it’s all about finding the root cause of Alzheimer’s, being able to diagnose it early, and being able to effectively treat it.

 

This paper also mentions (in its abstract) that some main advancements in this research has been propelled by atomic force microscopy and other types of microscopy, relating back to the original topic that we were learning about today.

 

 

http://www.nanopaprika.eu/video/video/show?id=1612324%3AVideo%3A14262 Oh, and here’s a video of an atomic force microscope viewing of filaments associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

This is a really cool book thing about nanoscience in general: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16922291/Big-Picture-on-Nanoscience

It mentions something called bio-barcode amplification that could be used to diagnose early stages of Alzheimer’s.

That reminds me. As I do these Google searches, I keep seeing the words “ultrasensitive bio-barcode assay” being thrown around. That could call for more research! Clicky-clicky!

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