Diabetes Mellitus is a common yet serious condition where your blood glucose levels (BGL) are not regulated by your body well enough. This can lead to your BGL’s being too high or too low, both of which are dangerous. Scientists are figuring out the causes of diabetes. Type 2 develops due to your body’s resistance … Continue reading What causes diabetes?
Since the first use of penicillin in 1942, antibiotic resistant bacteria have started to evolve. Usually, resistance develops quickly (a few years after drug introduction). This means that bacterial infections that once were benign could become deadly (back to how bacterial infections were prior to antibiotics). However, there are a few plans that could help … Continue reading How can we combat antibiotic resistance?
Everyone must have heard of the “Save the bees” movement but not everyone knows why we must save the bees and many other insect species. Many people still view insects as pests, nuisances and bugs. However, the role they play in ecosystems is essential. Firstly, insects maintain the food web, which humans heavily rely on. … Continue reading Why are insects important?
Photo: NASA Scientists have been discovering exoplanets for years. One prominent mission led by NASA was the Kepler mission which aimed to explore other stars and planets to find a planet that could sustain life. This article will try to give an insight into astrobiology and what life needs to survive on other planets The … Continue reading What does a planet need to sustain life?
Viruses can harm us, one example being COVID-19. This is because viruses can not replicate or live by themselves. So they insert themselves into host cells (our cells) and use the host’s organelles and machinery to replicate. Once replicated, they burst out of the cell by cytolysis, killing the cell in the process. As a … Continue reading How viruses help kill bacteria.
What are telomeres? Telomeres are caps at the end of our chromosomes that protect our DNA from damage. They are made up of the same short DNA sequence repeated over and over again, with the same sequence of bases. They are important for a cells because without them chromosomes would stick together and would not … Continue reading Telomeres and why we age.
Vaccinations have become incredibly important due to COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout needs to be faster and more efficient in order to achieve global herd immunity. Vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccine being an example, are usually injections that contain dead or weakened versions of the pathogen. However, there a numerous disadvantages to these traditional vaccines: They … Continue reading Vaccination delivery through a pill.
Cancer cells manage to hide from our immune system (IS) and understanding how they evade the IS helps scientists to create treatments for cancer. It can even help scientists figure out how to hide donor organs in a patient. If you would like to learn more about transplant immunology, click here: https://glamsci.blog/2021/04/13/transplant-immunology/ Usually the IS … Continue reading How do cancer cells evade the immune system?
It is estimated the 2 million people in the UK have a food allergy and many more have food intolerances. What actually happens to someone who has an allergic reaction and what are the solutions? The difference between an allergy and intolerance An allergy is a reaction of your immune system that triggers symptoms like … Continue reading What causes allergies and food intolerances?
Transplant immunology is the study of the immune response to organ transplants in surgery. There can be many complications that arise from transplants but a major factor is the immune system’s response to a foreign organ. Why does the immune system reject an organ? Every person has a specific set of Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) … Continue reading Transplant Immunology
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