I read the
article, “‘fountain of youth’ technique rejuvenates again stem cells” This
article’s information is as interesting as the title lets on. The scientists
Milica Radisic and Dr. Ren-Ke Li in Toronto have developed a system of
reversing the aging process on stem cells. It is done by a complicated process
in which the scientists create a, “micro environment” this allows for heart
tissue to grow. Then they take the cells and infuse them with a combination of
growth factors, and they are positioned in such a way that the porous
scaffolding of the cells are stimulated by this process. Dr. Li tracked the
cell’s molecular changes within the tissue patch, he stated that, “We saw
certain aging factors turned off.” This returned the cells back to a young
healthy state. Li and Radisic hope to be able to apply this to more conditions,
Li said, “We can create much better tissues which can be used to repair defects
such as aneurysms.” His significance of
this discovery is immense. Normally one would need stem cells from another to
repair their own, but now old people, who more easily reject foreign material,
can reverse the aging on the cells within their own body restoring their stem
cells to a fresh state.
I find this
article so amazing, the changes they made to the stem cells is phenomenal work.
The research and experimentation of these two baffles me, using their knowledge
of the factors and characteristics of the aging process in cells, they successfully
renewed useful cells. This article is very interesting to me, especially
because I like sci-fi movies. Those movies, especially set in the future,
sometimes have a character that does something to them self to reverse the
aging process. And now it’s weird to think that on a very small scale this is
very possible.
This article is
very interesting, but there were some problems in the way it was presented. I
felt the process was very vague. I didn’t know how the experiment was done and I
like to know every detail of an experiment because I like to have an image in
my head of what happened and how they found it. But in general it was a great
article and I’m very glad I came across it.
My classmate, Jim Grant, wrote a great review on the article, "Fountain of Youth’ Technique Rejuvenates Again Stem Cells." This review was very well done. One thing Jim did really well was provide great detail on how the experiment was performed. For example, Jim states that the scientists used growth factors and other things during the process where they created a "microenvironment." In addition, Jim did a great job providing his own analysis of how this is related to the world. Obviously, as scientists learn more about stem cells, they might learn how to better use them, but Jim made a connection of how this process is similar to time travel. Lastly, Jim research of stem cells can be used. For instance, Jim stated that stem cells can be used to repair defects in all people, but especially elderly people.
ReplyDeleteAlthough jim's review was great, he could do a few things to improve for next time. First off, Jim should have included the different types of stem cells and what are the moral and ethical dilemmas concerning stem cells. Lastly, Jim could have included who these scientists are and what other discoveries are they trying to make in the field of stem cells.
Jim did a really good job of making his review simple and easy to understand, but still providing good factual evidence. Jim's timing was great, as he released this article a few days before our mini unit on stem cells. Although i didn't read this article to after unit on stem cells, I found this article to be really interesting. Many of the points jim states were similar to the movie's facts, which made the information stick in my head better. For example, jim and the movie both stated how scientists have been able to turn the clock back on stem cells to get stem cells back to their original, unspecified forms.
I read my classmate Jim Grants review of the article, “Fountain of Youth”. One thing Jim did well was providing great detail throughout the article. Jim also did a great job of analyzing the article. A third thing Jim did well was explaining the article very clearly to his viewers. Although the article was great one thing Jim could work on is maybe including detail on different types of stem cells and the different scientists. Jim did a great job of explaining his article and it has definitely increased my knowledge.
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