Molecular Biology/Medicine
Juan C. Mendible
Articles
HAVING A BABY TO SAVE ANOTHER BABY´S LIFE
You have probably read about a few couples who have had a baby in order to use his blood to save a sibling's life. In this article I'll explain to you why and how it is done, what are the risks and how much it costs.
BABIES WITH TWO MOTHERS, IS IT WRONG?
Last March the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of Saint Barnabas in West Orange, New Jersey, reported in the Journal of Human Reproduction in the paper: “Mitochondria in human offspring derived from ooplasmic transplantation: Brief communication,” that they had produced 16 babies that had two biological mothers and that here ...
GENETICALLY DESIGNED PETS TO FIT THE OWNER´S TASTE
Last June, Transgenic Pets of Syracuse, New York, unveiled its plans to produce cats that do not cause allergic reactions in their owners. That is, it seems that the industry of genetically modified pets to fit their owner’s tastes is about to start.
During the last few years you have heard about "mad cow disease," which not only has wreaked havoc in the British economy but also brought fear into the hearts of the European people because man can be infected by eating contaminated meat.
IGNORANCE-BACKED EXTRATERRESTRIAL, IRRESPONSIBLE HUMAN CLONING
During the last few months people around the world have been shocked by news that humans are about to be cloned. They come from two sources. An expected one: The Rael Church which made its first announcement less than six months after Dolly's cloning in 1997 and the other from a ...
OF GREEN MONKEYS and, CHRONIC PAIN
During the last few years hardly a day has passed in which a university lab or a company hasn't announced the discovery of a new disease-associated gene or of the genetic manipulation of one organism or another. Those announcements almost always end with statements like this: "This discovery is very important ...
MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH?
If you have read my previous six articles you know about all the scientific efforts that are being done that could lead to the expansion of the human life span. However, all of those are related to high biotech developments: Gene therapy, xenotransplantation, stem cells, artificial organs, human cloning and gene ...
MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH?
In my previous articles I have told you about the ways they think life will be extended in the near future. They deal with the replacement of cells, organs or disease-related genes. However, those are solutions to the consequences of accidents, diseases and aging. Now I want to tell you about ...
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH?
Of all the procedures, gadgets and living parts been explored with the aim of extending human life, the one that I think has the most immediate promising future is provided by the exciting new field of Tissue Engineering, which is what I tell you about in this article.
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH?
For centuries man has known that, beyond broken bones, the human body cannot be repaired. That is because there are no spare parts, and the body's defense system rejects any type of tissue not recognized as its own. Will animal organs be used to repair the human body?
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH?
In November of 1998 two separate American teams announced an extraordinary breakthrough. One was led by Dr. James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the other by Dr. John Gearhart from John Hopkins University. Both teams managed, for the first time, to isolate and to grow indefinitely in the lab ...
MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH? II
This is the second article of this series. In it I tell you about how possible is it at this time to clone a human being.
MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH? Part I
Even though the extraordinary advances in medicine during the last century extended the average human life span from about 30 years at the dawning of the twentieth century to 76 at the beginning of the new millenium, man continues to consider eternal youth as a much longed-for utopia. Lifespan is still ...
MOLECULES, DIETS AND OBESITY III
In this article, I will tell you about diets and dieting. I will also give you some tips, based on my own experience, that will probably help you lose that extra weight that is bothering you.
DIETS, MOLECULES AND OBESITY: PART II
This is the second part of a three-part series. It deals with the fact that most obese people are so because of a genetic susceptibility. The susceptibility is brought about because our genes have not evolved to be adapted to an environment in which there is easy access to food rich ...
This article is the first in a series of three dealing with the worldwide problem of obesity. The risks that this disease represent, the fact that there is a lot of ignorance about it and that there are is no magic bullet to rid the world of this major problem.
PHARMACOGENOMICS: MEDICINES TAILORED JUST FOR YOU
This article is a brief description of the new science of Pharmacogenomics that will permit the design of medicine specific for a person according to his/her genetic make up.
THE LONG ROAD AHEAD OF THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
What we can expect from the human genome project in the near future.