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PHI`s kompis Wake Forest University har blivit miljöintresserade. Hur den marina världen mår och dess inverkan på the Climate Change många tror kommer. Wakeforskare har studerat de minsta mikroorganismerna i havens ekosystem,förekomst av virus i dessa mikrober.Hur det påverkar den marina näringskedjan där plankton är dess bas och så viktig för hela kedjan uppåt.

When marine algae get sick: how viruses shape microbe interactions

Wake Forest professor takes deeper dive with new study

Scientists estimate there are millions of viruses in a teaspoon of seawater. New research sheds light on what happens when marine microalgae encounter them and what that could mean for the ocean’s ecosystem.

By looking at the tiniest virus-infected microbes in the ocean, researchers are gaining new insights about the marine food web that may help improve future climate change predictions. The new study, co-authored by Wake Forest Assistant Professor of Biology Sheri Floge, brings together viral ecologists, chemists and physicists to find out more about marine microbes and what happens when viruses infect them.

Photosynthesis in the ocean

On land, photosynthesis is carried out by plants, and the impacts of the process can be seen with the autumn leaves changing color and new green leaves in the spring. But in the ocean, the process is much harder for scientists to measure. Most of the photosynthesis is carried out by the tiniest microbes, specifically phytoplankton. These single-celled organisms also are the base of the marine food web. One of the most abundant types of phytoplankton is marine picocyanobacteria such as Synechococcus.

“Synechococcus are very big players in the ocean globally,” said Sheri Floge, Wake Forest assistant professor of biology. “Together with other picocyanobacteria, they are responsible for about a quarter of ocean photosynthesis and are important to carbon and nutrient cycling, so it’s important that we understand their impacts and how they work, especially as it relates to climate change.”

These microorganisms are susceptible to viral infection and that changes their composition. Until now, scientists didn’t know a lot about what happened when they first became infected. Floge co-authored a new study that takes a deeper dive to demystify this process.

“Historically, scientists have focused on viruses in the ocean for their role in lysing (breaking open) cells. Our work shows that intact virus-infected cells are biochemically and physiologically different from uninfected cells and that other organisms respond differently to them,” said Floge. “There isn’t a lot of research that has focused on the early infection stage. By looking at the infected cells before they lyse, we can learn about their ecological role in ocean communities. And that additional data matters because it gives us a more complete picture of what is happening in marine ecosystems and long-term when you have cyanobacteria-dominated systems in the ocean.”

Min kommentar
De som följt bloggen från tidigt stadium minns att jag skrivit om marinforskare som studerat just plankton som betydelse för havens ekosystem. Där forskarna använt sig av *trumvirvel* DHM (Digital Holographic Microscopy). Tekniken som kännetecknar HoloMonitor. Bland annat i dessa 2 inlägg :

DHM - I miljöns tjänst del 1  (klickbar)

DHM - I miljöns tjänst del 2  (klickbar)

In och läs vad forskarna tycker om DHM som marint forskningsinstrument.

Med det konstaterat kanske nån hos PHI kan göra ett besök hos den här forskningsavdelningen på Wake och försynt påpeka att det finns ett utmärkt instrument att använda för deras kommande studier om den marina miljön? Ett tips free of charge. 😎

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I nästa vecka kommer ett intressant webinarium äga rum. Det är från PHI`s partner Huntsman Cancer Institute där forskaren Rebecca Zitnay berättar om de senaste upptäckterna man gjort med HoloMonitor/QPI i att bättre förstå hur cancerceller uppför sig och därmed öka möjligheterna att kunna hitta den mest effektiva behandlingen. 

Quantifying Cellular Adaptability Webinar Hosted by Altium

Join us for an exciting webinar featuring Dr. Rebecca Zitnay, an esteemed scientist whose work on quantifying cell adaptability with Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) investigates how cells that more readily adapt can gain a competitive edge in cancer and contribute to residual disease.

Learn how researchers are developing tools for measuring how quickly cells respond to changes in their environment. A gene-specific targeted therapy has yet to be effective for melanoma patients, necessitating new creative strategies for pairing patients with the ideal therapy. QPI offers users a way to evaluate live cells with single cell resolution and low phototoxicity, which allows us to measure the adaptive response of melanoma cells to a range of environmental contexts, evaluate treatment conditions, and understand more about the biology behind this enigmatic cancer. Rebecca will discuss how they are using QPI to measure the changes in phenotype of cells in 2D and in spheroid culture to get unique insight into their behavior.

Rebecca är en av Dr Robert Judson-Torres lärjungar och ingår i hans forskargrupp. 

Den briljanta forskaren som bloggen förutspått kommer vara en stark kandidat till ett kommande Nobelpris i medicin. 
Hans fokus är hudcancer och han är förmodligen en världsledande auktoritet inom detta forskningsområde.

Från tidigare intervju med Robert:

Melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is increasing. In the US, melanoma is one of the most common cancers among young adults. However, if the disease is caught early, then it can be cured. A research team, led by Dr Robert Judson-Torres, is tracking single cells when studying melanoma at an early stage. “Ultimately cancer is a disease where rare single cells start doing something we don’t want them to do. We want to find these very rare single cells.”

Cells pulled out from the skin
Many studies in the field of melanoma focus on cell lines derived from patients that already have advanced disease. These cells are not representative of the early stages of the disease.
“We had to establish a model using the cell type from which melanoma is derived, so we are using human melanocytes. Then we used CRISPR to introduce the mutations most commonly associated with melanoma in order to engineer the early stages of the disease.”
The research team receives skin removed in surgeries; this gives only a few cells to work with. Dr Judson-Torres explains that they don’t work with cells that have been kept in culture for a long time; they want to keep everything as close as possible to the cell type pulled out from the skin.
When putting human melanocytes on glass or plastic, the morphology is complex and beautiful, but after a few weeks in the lab the complexity is gone, Dr. Judson-Torres says.

How is HoloMonitor helping you?
“We are able to visualize the primary cells we derive from the skin immediately without labeling the cells and without undergoing any selection process. We can also watch the cells without disturbing them. We can see which behaviors and morphologies are dynamic. We are able to get a lot of information out of these very few cells in the limited time we have to work with them. I’m not aware of any other equipment that would allow that.”

Using HoloMonitor M4 to track individual cells among the primary melanocytes pulled out from patients, Dr Judson-Torres’s research group was able to characterize not only how different the melanocytes are but also if they belong to distinct groups with similar characteristics.
When looking at the percentage of cells that do transform, the research team then introduces other conditions or environmental stimuli, like small molecules, to see if the rate then increases or decreases.
“If other conditions or compounds influence the probability of transformation, it would not be just early diagnosis we might be able to help with, but also prevention.”

“We are interested in looking at the point in tumor progression where cancer cells begin to metastasize. There is a concept called cell state plasticity, which is basically a term for a cell losing enough of its regulation. If the cell’s plasticity has increased, you have a cell that will more easily overcome selective pressures.
This is very difficult to study. We wanted to visualize cells, monitor their different behaviors and morphologies to determine the of fluctuation between these characteristics.

With HoloMonitor M4 we could study how individual cells behaved and we could perform time lapse studies. HoloMonitor allow us to conduct these experiments investigating cell state kinetics; it allows us to monitor plasticity with single cell resolution.”/

Min kommentar
Rebecca kommer förmodligen berätta om helt nya upptäckter man gjort i hur hudcancerceller utvecklas och reagerar vid förändringar som ex tillsatta anticancer substanser. Upptäckter baserade på effektivt användande av HoloMonitor.

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Sist en personlig utvikning.Den här veckan har jag varit på undersökning igen för just denna jävla amöbacancer. En snabbväxande grej på huden som jag inte gillar. Gjorde inte min läkare heller så operation borttagning blir av redan tisdag nästa vecka. Därefter inskick till labbet för att se vad det handlar om. 2 veckors väntan på besked mest troligt. Dec börjar ju bra.Sen dax för 6-månaders kollen hos hematologen på KS för den andra jävla canceramöban. Pardon my french,men cancer får man svära åt.

Som jag brukar säga till min omgivning: Släpp för fan inte in cancer i din kropp! Vid minsta "nåt känns inte bra i kroppen" till förändringar utvärtes,gå OMEDELBUMS och kolla upp det. Hittar man nåt på ett tidigt stadium slipper man förhoppningsvis allt elände denna amöba för med sig. 99:ans visdomsord.

                                            Mvh the99