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Precision Medicine, the pharmacy of the future

Imtiaz Afridi
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Precision Medicine, the pharmacy of the future

The same medicine may react differently to different people. Some people recover quickly while some need a bit higher dose or sometimes longer time for effective results. The reason is that medicine does not respond the same way to every individual. There are a lot of factors involved that can enhance or suppress the activity of medicine in one’s body. Sometimes the pathogens show resistance to the same medicine which means they cannot be treated with the same antibiotic for a long time, which is called Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR).

Precision medicine may be the answer

To overcome this ambiguity, scientists have come up with the idea of ‘Precision Medicine’. Which is a new field combining pharmacology (study of medicine) and genomics (study of genes and their function).

Precision medicine deals with the prescription of medicine to patients that are solely designed for one genetic group taking into account the variation in their genes, environmental factors, lifestyle, and even the normal microbial flora living inside the body.

Precision medicines may be the answer to drug resistance issues
Medicines may react differently to different people

With the evolution of this new field, it is now important to better understand and study the patient’s pharmacogenomics before prescribing any dose of medicine. The pharmacogenomics will help us understand how the genes of an individual can affect the response of a particular drug in his/her body.  Studying a patient’s pharmacogenomics before prescribing any drug can help the physicians and scientists prescribe and develop more effective, precise and safe medication for each particular individual.

According to Jia Ruan, MD, Ph.D., a scientist working on precision medicine from the USA, “If we could know ahead of time, we could have the treatment designed and tailored to maximize treatment effectiveness and minimize adverse events.”

Another scientist from a leading team of scientists from the USA added: “Precision medicine means to find the root cause of each patient’s unique condition and apply the best, most precise treatment.”

Looking into the future, the precision medicine for each individual is dependent on one’s genome and a few other factors but nowadays everybody can get their sequenced genome for just $1000, which can be then followed by their own personalized pills/drugs.

Author: Imtiaz Afridi

Also Read: The phage treatment: Say goodbye to Antibiotics

Team Pakistan wins seed-grant at TechWomen 2019

Scientia
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Team Pakistan wins seed-grant at TechWomen 2019

Pakistan has no doubt amazing potential in the technology sector, and this just got proven at TechWomen 2019, where a team from Pakistan, consisting solely of energetic females, was declared among the top 5 seed-grant winners.

TechWomen is an exchange program that aims to connect, bring together and empower females that are the potential leaders of the future, especially those working in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (referred to as STEM). The target regions are Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia where such women are recognized who have big goals like helping their communities and serve as a symbol of inspiration for others. It was launched in 2011 by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is managed by the Institute of International Education.

Team Pakistan was one of the seed-grant winners at TechWomen 2019

The team from Pakistan included Asmara Rahat, Ayesha Mumtaz Khan, Farhat Yasmeen, Asna Javed, and Zeenat Anjum who work in and came from different domains such as IT and digital media. Their plan comprised of creating an online portal called Bacha-O.org which will aid in promoting the awareness of the issue of child abuse, which is a grave problem in Pakistan, and of Mera Bacha, that is an already established platform created by the government where child sexual abuse cases can be reported.

In a statement provided on the website, the team said,” Our mission is to reduce child sexual abuse in Pakistan by raising awareness and providing child protection tools, using a new digital platform called Bacha-O. Our objective is to make every child safe by activating the community and engaging all the stakeholders to reduce the number of incidents. A recent report by the Pakistani government depicts an alarming rise in the number of cases of child abuse. Children need a safe environment for societal growth. Our plan is to create a portal, Bacha-O.org, to promote awareness of the issue and of Mera Bacha, an existing government portal for reporting child sexual abuse cases. As awareness increases, we will manufacture wristbands for child protection, create community hubs and an AI chatbot for children, and deliver training for parents and teachers on recognizing and reporting child abuse.”

TechWomen provides mentorship to the teams with the best pitches and especially focuses on enhancing the professional capacity and developing more interest in STEM careers. The grant helps them to apply and work on the prophets in their home countries.

Also Read: A Historic Day: NASA astronauts conduct the first-ever all-women spacewalk

Microbial Creativity: A beautiful fusion between science and art!

Aniqa Mazhar
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Microbial Creativity: A beautiful fusion between science and art!

“Put life into your artwork!”

Students at the Pharmaceutical University of Nanjing, East China took these words of inspiration way too literally! 

By taking different colored strains of bacteria and placing them in Petri dishes, students created microbial masterpieces for an art competition arranged in November 2018.

Taking creativity to the next level in the labs!

Now, this practice has become a whole ‘art’, where schoolchildren are introduced into the world of microorganisms in a fun and colorful way! Here are some interesting pictures which take you into a world where biology and creativity beautifully merge.

Yeast species – which are fungi – used include Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yellow-white) Aspergillus flavus (yellow-green spores), Aspergillus ochraceus (yellow), Aureobasidium pullulans (black), Candida albicans (whitish buff), Candida sake, Candida sp. (whitish), Cladosporium herbarum (brown to black), Cladosporium resinae, Epicoccum nigrum (yellow, orange, red, brown, and black), Fusarium sp., Rhodotorula sp., and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis.[5][a]

Protist species used include Euglena gracilis (photosynthetic, green) and Physarum polycephalum (yellow-green).

Pigmented bacterial strains are used in the process

Agar plates are used as a canvas, while pigmented or fluorescent bacteria and yeasts represent the paint. In order to preserve a piece of microbial art after a sufficient incubation, the microbe culture is sealed with epoxy.

A technique called “bacteriography” involves selectively killing certain areas of a bacterial culture with radiation, in order to produce artistic patterns. After incubation, the culture is sealed with acrylic.

One really wishes after seeing these artistic pieces that universities in Pakistan also adopt such learning activities. It would really help in developing students’ interest in science!

Taking agar art to the next level, successful attempts are made to create detailed portraits and sceneries.
Taking agar art to the next level, successful attempts are made to create detailed portraits and sceneries.

The American Society for Microbiologists hosts an annual contest for microbial art: Agar Art. The 2015 edition covered 85 submissions, of which microbial art created by Mehmet Berkmen and Maria Peñil called Neurons won first place. They have been working together since 2011 on making bacterial art. The artwork used yellow Nesterenkonia and orange Deinococcus and Sphingomonas.

Also Read: Artificial Intelligence is on its way to conquer the art scene

The time when Saturn’s storm was captured

Scientia
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The time when Saturn’s storm was captured

At the beginning of this decade, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took some images of the surface of the planet Saturn which showed the details of a storm. It was seen around 35 degrees north latitude of the planet and continued to rage on the months later as well. That storm was almost five hundred times larger than the previously observed storm which appeared from 2009 to 2010.

Below are some of the images of the observed storm!

As seen in December 2010
Another view of the storm
Here the evolution of the storm is depicted, which usually occurs every 30 years
An active storm captured on Saturn by NASA’s Voyager or Cassini spacecraft
This image was taken by amateur astronomers

About Cassini – The mission to Saturn

In Cassini- Huygens mission, NASA JPL along with European space agency (ESA) and Italian space agency (ISA) decided to launch a probe to the planet Saturn to study its rings and natural satellites. This mission involves Cassini probe and Huygens lander, which was the largest interplanetary spacecraft the Fourth probe that reached to the Saturn was Cassini, named after Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. 

Cassini launched in October 1997 and stayed on board for more than 20 years, out of which 13 years spent in orbiting Saturn and studying the planet and its system. The spacecraft accompanied by comet rendezvous asteroid flyby (CRAF) spacecraft but due to a shortage of budgets, CRAF construction had terminated to continue the synthesis of Cassini. Main objectives of the mission include:

  • To determine the 3D structure and dynamic behavior of the rings of Saturn.
  • To determine the composition of the surfaces of the various satellite. 
  • To measure the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the magnetosphere.
  • To explore the dynamic behavior of Saturn’s atmosphere at cloud level.
  • To Study the time variability of Titan’s clouds and hazes of planet Saturn.

Also Read: NASA releases ghostly images in the spirit of Halloween

Mercury-Transit; A rare Astronomical phenomenon

Aniqa Mazhar
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Mercury-Transit; A rare Astronomical phenomenon


Karachi: This month, a unique and exciting event will be experienced in space in which the planet, Mercury, will pass in front of the Sun. This is called Mercury transition. Millions of people around the globe will observe the planet on the face of the Sun as though it is a pimple on it. This event will reoccur after a wide gap of 13 years, in 2032. It shows that in a century, this happens only 13 times. There are only two planets in our Solar System which float pass in front of the Sun during their course, and these include Mercury and Venus.

Previously, Venus passed in front of the Sun in 2012, many institutions are preparing to capture stunning photographs of the event. Mostly, planets orbit around the Sun quite fast, but their path is not parallel with that of Earth’s. Either they are above the Sun or pass beneath it. On this basis, November is a particular time when Earth, Mercury, and the Sun are in one line, and can carefully observe the orbit of Mercury.

In this case, Mercury is seen as a black dot on the surface of the Sun, making up a very tiny portion of the Sun’s area. For this moment, NASA has asked the observers of space to be prepared because this is an exceptional and mesmerizing event.

Most experts from NASA and other space agencies have warned that looking directly at the Sun in this situation can harm our eyesight. It is suggested to observe the shadow of the Sun in a bowl full of water or by using an old X-ray. With these precautions, Mercury can be seen moving gradually from one pole to another on the surface of the Sun.

A sad piece of news is that this transition will not be visible in most parts of Pakistan. Only a glance will be caught from Karachi and areas in its vicinity from 5 34 pm. A dot (Mercury) will be visible on the upper right side of the face of the Sun. It will be more prominent in the next 2 minutes and eventually move towards the middle area of the Sun, which will start setting at 5 44 pm.

For people who wish to see, it is again instructed that they don’t look at the Sun directly and use an X-ray to observe.

Link to similar posts : Hubble captures a peculiar cosmic image

Mapping a treatment plan; Doctors recommend a Second Opinion

Scientia
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Mapping a treatment plan; Doctors recommend a Second Opinion

Life would not remain the same after a cancer diagnosis, it gets a twist, and everyone bound to have lots of questions about the severity of the disease, treatment, and life after recovery. A newly diagnosed patient needs assurance always that there is still hope, but most important of all, where should a patient go for treatment.

This question seems simple, one can scroll social media or Google world best cancer treatment hospital within a few seconds, but the road to a complete recovery is harder enough. One needs to figure out available financial resources and insurance and then to map out a treatment plan. In Pakistan, patients and family members often got stuck at the initial stage of planning due to the lack of cancer awareness. Cancer is life-threatening, but most of its types can be cured when diagnosed at an early stage.

In a developing country like Pakistan, there is a severe need for awareness about “Second Opinion.” This is mandatory step doctors recommend to patients and their families to slow down their search of cancer specialists and hospitals and take a crucial but more often an overlooked step and get a second opinion.

Scientia’s editorial team reached out to some cancer specialists and cancer survivors and came across these five reasons why patients and family members should take the second opinion on their road to recovery.

  • Peace of Mind
  • Up-to-date treatment and technology
  • A different approach to treatment
  • Access to best up-to-date medical facilities
  • A continuous assurance that there is hope
Mandi Hudson, an author shows his support for the second opinion
Mandi Hudson, an author shows his support for the second opinion

According to a physician of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), “Getting a second opinion may help you decide the cancer treatment designed to meet your needs. Many of us face time constraints, and fitting another appointment into your busy work or home life may be challenging. Many factors determine how long a second opinion evaluation takes. During the evaluation, a dedicated team of oncologists, nurses, dietitians, and other cancer experts work with you to review your medical history, diagnostic tests, and treatment status. We may also use additional diagnostic technology to further evaluate the disease. Using all this information, we then develop your personalized treatment plan.”

Pam Lefferts, a cancer survivor expresses his views on second opinion
Pam Lefferts, a cancer survivor expresses his views on the second opinion

Carly O’Brien, LCSW, OSW-C, discussed the need for the second opinion and came across the situations when taking the second opinion is mandatory.

  • You have a rare or unusual cancer
  • You feel uncomfortable with your doctor, the diagnosis or you need confirmation
  • Your health insurance requires it
  • The treatment offered has side effects or risks that you find disconcerting
  • More options will result in unacceptable or unreasonable demands on your life and your family
  • Your doctor’s treatment goals are different from your own
  • Your cancer is not responding to your current treatment

Link to similar posts: Opinions, Artificial Intelligence edition

NASA releases ghostly images in the spirit of Halloween

Scientia
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NASA releases ghostly images in the spirit of Halloween

NASA marked Halloween by releasing fascinating and spooky images of the cosmos, that gives the creeps to some and excites others. Some of those were captured by telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope. Most of these included nebulas and stars colliding with each other and even the Sun looking like jack-o’-lantern. Check out the freaky visuals down below!

This image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows two “eyes” which are actually the cores of two colliding galaxies
Image credit: NASA/ESA
This picture released on the time of Halloween shows the active regions on the sun giving it the appearance of a jack-o’-lantern
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
This image shows the Witch Head nebula, which is estimated to be hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA Spitzer captures a massive star in the center of a cloud of dust and gas creating the "Jack-o-lantern Nebula."
Spitzer captures a massive star in the center of a cloud of dust and gas creating the “Jack-o-lantern Nebula.”
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA recently shared this spooky image of asteroid 2015 TB145 which is a dead comet
NASA recently shared this spooky image of asteroid 2015 TB145 which is a dead comet
Image credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF
IRAS 05437+2502, also known as Ira’s Ghost, is a small, faint reflection nebula filled with dark dust and a mysterious bright sharp arc
Image credit: ESA/HUBBLE, R. SAHAI, AND NASA

Also, check out the Peculiar image cosmic image captured by Hubble.

Hubble captures a peculiar cosmic image

Scientia
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Hubble captures a peculiar cosmic image

Hubble space telescope has captured an intimidating image of a weird ghost-like face. The image taken by the NASA’s Hubble space telescope peeks deep into space and has captured the ghostly profile of a head-on collision of two galaxies some 700 million light-years away. The ghostly face seen in the majestic image released by NASA shows two “eyes” which are actually the cores of two colliding galaxies. While the cores of galaxies form the eyes, the “nose” and “head” of the ghost are formed by the clouds of dust and gas pulled together into star-forming regions.

The binary system of the two colliding galaxies is known as Arp-Madore 2026-424. The colliding system is also included in a “Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations”. The catalog was first assembled by Astronomer Halton Arp who identified 338 unusual-looking galaxies.

The image (R) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (L) shows two “eyes” which are actually the cores of two colliding galaxies
The image (R) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (L) shows two “eyes” which are actually the cores of two colliding galaxies

This image of AM2026-424 was taken by Hubble Space Telescope as part of a program to take a closer look at unique and peculiar-looking galaxies during gaps in the observatory’s schedule. The goal of the program is to learn more about the galaxies in our night sky and understand the merger of galaxies and to identify future targets for observation for the James Webb Space telescope after it launches in 2021. 

Also, check out stunning pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy, here.

Scope of Cancer Research in Pakistan

Saadeqa Khan
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Scope of Cancer Research in Pakistan
Cancer research in Pakistan.

Cancer is a disease whereby affected body cells grow uncontrolled and deprives healthy body cells of nutrients and appropriate function. According to a fact sheet of WHO, released in 2017, cancer is a chief cause of mortality worldwide, resulting in every 1 per 6 deaths being cancer mediated. In 2019, around 140,690 cancer cases have been recorded in Pakistan, and a murky side is that the majority of these patients will continue their fight against cancer lifelong.

A recent demo-graph conducted by JPMA under the supervision of Agha Khan Hospital showed some common cause of cancer-related deaths in women is breast cancer, followed by Lung and blood cancer. But most of the population is entirely unaware of the causes behind the rapid growth in disease and of the fact that death risk can be minimized with early diagnosis or annual mammograms of women.

Certain risk factors are contributing to the fast pace of cancer cases, including Hormone deficiency, heredity, metabolic, or irregularity in the immune system. Whereas external sources like alcohol, smoking, excessive radiation exposure, and imbalance in dietary are instrumental in this deadliest disease. Nanoparticle toxicity is another major cause of genetic mutations that can prove to be carcinogenic as these Nanoparticles are present in smoke, paints, and even in the air.

In Pakistan, no population-based study has been conducted so far to figure out the nationwide incidence of cancer cases. According to a rough estimation, Pakistan stands as a sixth nation in the world where more than 80 million of the total population is suffering through such a chronic disease. However, cancer is needed to be monitored monthly with a proper cancer monitoring policy and prevention strategy.

Moreover, there is a severe lack of awareness for gender-based cancer types like breast, skin, and ovarian cancer; they are still a taboo subject in our society, patients and their families used to hide the diagnosis. A thorough analysis with detrimental effects on psych-social aspects of a patient’s life should be done to identify the financial stress on the family when a member diagnosed with cancer. In this regard WHO provides an organized framework that maintains global guidelines on cancer enlistment and restorative coding data. In Pakistan, only Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, working around 19 years, and Agha Khan Hospital Karachi, are contributing to information collection on cancer analysis and treatment and equally providing research facilities to tackle health challenges. SKMH has its own cancer registry and record of cancer cases which reveals an upward trend in progress and prevalence of breast/blood cancer due to the lack of awareness and facilities among patients.

Pakistan has no dearth of talent, our great scientists and researchers are working hard in the international organizations, and an example is Dr. Waqas Usman Hingoro, based in Liyari, a small town in the premises of Karachi, his research on advanced treatment of cancer has recently been published in prestigious Nature Communication journal. Dr. Hingro with his team unleashed the ability of red blood cells’ components called extracellular vesicles, which can successfully carry drug delivery nanoparticles (NPs) into the affected human body parts.

Nonetheless, we are short on job opportunities and cancer research facilities in our Universities and educational institutions. This inappropriate culture is the primary cause of unawareness as it never encourages local medical students and researchers to develop a strategy or a coping mechanism for our fight against cancer. However, navigation in the cancer path will be more straightforward when young researchers are provided with a proper support system and guidance. Our Government and private sector should prioritize investment in cancer and a committed training program and mentorship of next-generation scientists should be included in the equation.

NASA Space Apps Challenge Pakistan 2019 – A Success Story

Scientia
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NASA Space Apps Challenge Pakistan 2019 – A Success Story

NASA Space Apps Challenge was organized for the 3rd consecutive time this year by RaheQamar and their event partners in Pakistan. The event organized on 18-20th October simultaneously for the first time ever in 5 major cities, Islamabad, Quetta, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi. Following statistics give you a glimpse of the huge success of this historic event:

It was a milestone achievement and given the great response by the participants and enthusiasts alike, team RaheQamar hopes to expand this program even more next time.

RaheQamar’s Founder and CEO, Mohammad Iftekhar Yezdani said in a statement, “We started to host NASA Space Apps from Islamabad. The next year we organized it in Karachi as well. This year we have successfully hosted in 5 major cities across Pakistan! The overwhelming response of more than 500 registrations from all over Pakistan, shows that Pakistan has immense talent ready to work on Space technologies and applications. I would like to congratulate my team RaheQamar and I heartily thank all of the participants, judges and mentors for making Space apps 2019 a huge success! We would continue to organize more global events that provide students, professionals and artists with opportunities to collaborate and put Pakistan on the global map of science, space science & technology.”

Here are some highlights of the event.

Space Apps Islamabad

In Islamabad, the event was conducted at CoWork24 in collaboration with the Google developers group (ISB). Mohammad Iftekhar Yezdani and Pawan Akhani along with their team members and volunteers organized the challenge and a total of five teams participated.

1st Prize: Team SSI3 (Memory Maker) ‘mechanical memory storage’ device earned the praise from judges because it addressed the problem i.e. “Electronics not working well on Venus due to its extreme conditions”. The device that their team proposed was named “Mechanically Integrated Memory (MIM)”.

2nd Prize: Team Mahir-e-Falkiat (From Curious Minds Come Helping Hands)

Space Apps Karachi

This subevent was organized at Tabani’s School of Accountancy. It was managed by Hassaan Bin Zaki and Waniya Khursheed along with their team and a total of seven teams participated.

1st Prize: Team NUST (Memory maker)

2nd Prize: Team Globe saver (warming planets, cool ideas)

Space Apps Peshawar

Space Apps Peshawar was organized for the first time ever at CECOS University Peshawar in collaboration with ORIC (CECOS) and Makers lab. It was managed by Zara Shafique, Abdul Subhan and their team and a total of six teams took part in the challenge.

1st Prize: Team Space analysts (Rising water). They plan to create awareness regarding rising sea levels and their consequences through an interesting 3D game.

2nd Prize: Team E.co stellar (Global warming) who designed a device to convert nitrogen oxide to ammonia.

Space Apps Quetta

This too was held for the first time in the city of Quetta and the response was the most overwhelming among all the cities. It was Organized at BUITEMS (Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences). The event was managed by Dr. Bushra Naeem, Asim Khan, and Raza Hassan and their team and in total nine teams participated.

1st Prize: Team Flow who presented a solution for global warming.

2nd Prize: Team Thruster debris towards gravity. (They worked in the category “Design your own challenge” and proposed a solution to clean space debris.)

Space Apps Lahore

Superior University Lahore, in collaboration with Chaudhary Muhammad Akram Center of Economic Development, hosted the NASA Space Apps Challenge in Lahore. Engr. Rashid Liaqat and Engr. Sagheer Ahmed along with their team managed the challenge and a total of eight teams participated.

RaheQamar successfully organized Space Apps across Pakistan

1st Prize:  Team Tunaray. They worked out a smart solution for the provision of cheap internet in the oceans.

2nd Prize: Team Lunar Dust. They proposed a setup that may reduce the contamination of landers by moondust with the help of reversing electromagnetism of dust and other stuff being employed on the astronaut’s suits and the lander chamber as well.

All these successful events were supported by respected and famous professionals belonging to different fields as well as the Entrepreneurial sector. These included Mr. Ghulam Jillani (Chief Executive at G.J. Associates for Corporate Training Solutions & Consulting, Vice President, Pakistan Policy Institute USA), Mrs. Farhat Bashir and Mr. Muhammad Zulkifil Ahmed (Seerab Maps), Mr. Ajmal Hussain, Dr. Bakhtiar Kasi, Mrs. Anila Iftekhar, and many other prestigious judges and mentors who greatly assisted in the event and encouraged and lauded the teams for their active participation.

Also Read: World Space Week 2019 around the globe

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