What is cellular biology? In other words, what are cells and how are they studied? The study of cells contains all research about everything contained in them. Included in this study is plant and animal cells.
They both contain much of the same parts and materials such as the nucleus, cytoplasm, ribosomes etc., but some differences are that plant cells have cell walls, chloroplasts, and plastids, while animal cells have cilia. Only plants contain chloroplasts because they create their own food through the process of photosynthesis. Both cells, however, do the same function. Both receive instructions from the DNA through its RNA. The RNA contains the code to do whatever it is and the cell sends it out. As well as being carriers of DNA, they also have their own set of jobs that come from it. There are lots of different types, such as blood, white, and skin cells. White cells help with fighting infection, viruses and injury; blood cells carry oxygen through the body, and skin cells form our outer protective layer to keep our insides safe. Over time, cells stop working and fall off, so our bodies have a natural regeneration function. Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle. In eukaryotes, there are two distinct type of cell division: a vegetative division, whereby each daughter cell is genetically identical to the parent cell; and a reductive cell division, where the number of chromosomes in the daughter cells is reduced by half. Cells are essentially the main unit that keeps us together, but DNA can get corrupted and cause problems with it.
Cancer is a cell based disease. Cancer usually starts when the DNA/RNA sends a faulty instruction because either because of originating in that form or some kind of corruption happens on the way through the cell. The mutated RNA passes through the Ribosomes and starts creating mutated proteins, which then turn into faulty cells and multiply throughout the body. It isn’t always internal sources that cause cancer either. The skin cancer, melanoma, develops when the sun’s UV rays damage the DNA inside the nucleus. The basic way it happens is easy to see, but scientists are still trying to find exactly just how it works for each kind.
Scientists at the Broad Stem Cell Research Center have made large amounts of progress in studying cancer stem cells. Their findings address possible treatments as well as diagnosis and prevention. There are many new things the have discovered and are even in the process of using artificial help for the cells, such as helping the body’s own cells fight cancer by engineering, through stem cells, a cancer-fighting immune system. They’re working on identifying the molecular and genetic mechanisms that cause normal blood stem cells to become cancerous, which could lead to new therapies that target leukemia stem cells and kill the early cells that give rise to mature cancer cells. They have developed screening methods that will match specific drug treatments with patients with brain, ovarian and colorectal cancer based on molecular and genetic response to the therapy and avoiding trial and error. This is all from just one group of researchers. The progress in this field is growing exponentially and everyday is even closer to finding how to permanently fight of this disease
What current research is going on for therapies and cures for cancer? How do they connect with cells? Since cancer is a cellular mutation and not an illness, it can’t really have a “cure” that fixes every type. To try to make a cure of such type would be extremely difficult, time consuming, and expensive. While scientists are looking for a way to reverse the effects, they have developed several therapies that can slow and sometimes get rid of it completely. Among these are some notable ones such as chemo and radiation therapy. Other kinds include surgery, taking special drugs and even hypothermia. Chemotherapy is a treatment using one or more cytotoxic antineoplastic drugs. These chemotherapeutic agents act by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that chemotherapy also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract, and hair follicles. These often also cause problems with blood cell production which then hurts the immune system, as well as the most notable effect of hair loss caused by undergoing this therapy. Chemo is often used with radiation therapy to boost the effect. Radiation therapy is the use of ionizing radiation to control or kill malignant cells. The treatment involves using a large machine to fire ionized particles at the tumor in order to control its growth and even kill its reproductive processeses. Radiation therapy is in itself painless as treatments cause minimal or no side effects, although short-term pain can be experienced in the days following treatment due to oedema compressing nerves in the treated area. Higher doses can cause varying side effects during treatment in the months or years following treatment, or after re-treatment. The nature, severity, and longevity of side effects depends on the organs that receive the radiation, the treatment itself, and the patient.
Sources:
What is cancer?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer
What is cancer? what causes cancer?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/
The cancer cell. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/cells/the-cancer-cell
How cancer starts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/cells/how-cancer-starts
Cell division and cancer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/cell-division-and-cancer-14046590
Cancer is a cell based disease. Cancer usually starts when the DNA/RNA sends a faulty instruction because either because of originating in that form or some kind of corruption happens on the way through the cell. The mutated RNA passes through the Ribosomes and starts creating mutated proteins, which then turn into faulty cells and multiply throughout the body. It isn’t always internal sources that cause cancer either. The skin cancer, melanoma, develops when the sun’s UV rays damage the DNA inside the nucleus. The basic way it happens is easy to see, but scientists are still trying to find exactly just how it works for each kind.
Scientists at the Broad Stem Cell Research Center have made large amounts of progress in studying cancer stem cells. Their findings address possible treatments as well as diagnosis and prevention. There are many new things the have discovered and are even in the process of using artificial help for the cells, such as helping the body’s own cells fight cancer by engineering, through stem cells, a cancer-fighting immune system. They’re working on identifying the molecular and genetic mechanisms that cause normal blood stem cells to become cancerous, which could lead to new therapies that target leukemia stem cells and kill the early cells that give rise to mature cancer cells. They have developed screening methods that will match specific drug treatments with patients with brain, ovarian and colorectal cancer based on molecular and genetic response to the therapy and avoiding trial and error. This is all from just one group of researchers. The progress in this field is growing exponentially and everyday is even closer to finding how to permanently fight of this disease
What current research is going on for therapies and cures for cancer? How do they connect with cells? Since cancer is a cellular mutation and not an illness, it can’t really have a “cure” that fixes every type. To try to make a cure of such type would be extremely difficult, time consuming, and expensive. While scientists are looking for a way to reverse the effects, they have developed several therapies that can slow and sometimes get rid of it completely. Among these are some notable ones such as chemo and radiation therapy. Other kinds include surgery, taking special drugs and even hypothermia. Chemotherapy is a treatment using one or more cytotoxic antineoplastic drugs. These chemotherapeutic agents act by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that chemotherapy also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract, and hair follicles. These often also cause problems with blood cell production which then hurts the immune system, as well as the most notable effect of hair loss caused by undergoing this therapy. Chemo is often used with radiation therapy to boost the effect. Radiation therapy is the use of ionizing radiation to control or kill malignant cells. The treatment involves using a large machine to fire ionized particles at the tumor in order to control its growth and even kill its reproductive processeses. Radiation therapy is in itself painless as treatments cause minimal or no side effects, although short-term pain can be experienced in the days following treatment due to oedema compressing nerves in the treated area. Higher doses can cause varying side effects during treatment in the months or years following treatment, or after re-treatment. The nature, severity, and longevity of side effects depends on the organs that receive the radiation, the treatment itself, and the patient.
Sources:
What is cancer?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/what-is-cancer
What is cancer? what causes cancer?. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/
The cancer cell. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/cells/the-cancer-cell
How cancer starts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/cells/how-cancer-starts
Cell division and cancer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/cell-division-and-cancer-14046590