Medical Science

A genetic disorder can be described as an illness that is caused by abnormalities in the genes or chromosomes. There are some diseases that may be a cross between genetic and environmental factors, such as different types of cancers. Most…
Read more

There are many diseases and disorders that are associated with mosaicism, especially since there are two types; somatic and gonadal.  Mosaicism occurs from a mutation during development to only a certain group of cells, not every cell in the body. …
Read more

Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) is a relatively rare genetic disorder, affecting an estimated 10,000 people in the U.S. The inheritance pattern of VHL is autosomal dominant. This means that anyone born with the disease gene has a 50% chance of…
Read more

Laminopathies are genetic disorders caused by mutations in the lamin family of nuclear proteins, lamin A/C. The LMNA gene encodes several lamin proteins, which are classified as type V intermediate filaments and make up the nuclear membrane. The various disorders…
Read more

Ribonucleic acid, known by its acronym RNA, is a sequence of chemical code complementary to the more famous DNA. Similar to DNA, four nucleotides make up the RNA sequence – adenine (A), uracil (U, the counterpart to thymine, T, in…
Read more

The most common polysomy involving the sex chromosomes is a disorder known as Klinefelter’s syndrome. Klinefelter’s results from the non-disjunction of one or more X chromomosomes during meiosis leading to an abnormal karyotype (chromosome number or structure). The majority of non-disjunction events…
Read more

We live in a world that is full of mutant viruses, airborne allergies, and potent pollutants. One thing they all have in common is a strong dislike for a healthy immune system. Coming in contact with one is like Kryptonite;…
Read more

Nerves are the conduit through which we are able to experience the world around us. There are two steps to transmitting information from our environment: (1) transduction of the stimulus from the environment to a cell of the nervous system…
Read more

Traditional neuroanatomy, in addition to filling the most demanding weeks of my education, has focused on area-to-area connectivity-the location and properties of gross anatomical areas and connections between them. The human brain, however, is composed of tens of billions of…
Read more

The brain is about the size and weight of a grapefruit, has a pinkish color, and has about the same consistency as Jell-O. Scientists once thought that, unlike other organs, the brain was a huge single cell, but we now…
Read more