Latest Posts by invincibleworld - Page 2

Different species of Euglena found in pond water. They are either green, red, or a mix of both and usually have a visible red eyespot. 

Photographed by merismo

Leaf epidermis under dark (top) and light (bottom) condition. Stomatal openings seen on both picture.  

The Birth of Brain Cells

This might look like a distant web of galaxies captured by a powerful telescope, but it’s actually a microscopic image of a newborn nerve cell. The human brain contains more cells than there are stars in our galaxy, and the most important cells are neurons, which are nerve cells responsible for transmitting and processing electro-chemical signals at up to 320 km/h. This chemical signalling occurs through synapses—specialised connections with other cells, like wires in a computer. Each cell can receive input from thousands of others, so a typical neuron can have up to ten thousand synapses—i.e., can communicate with up to ten thousand other neurons, muscle cells, and glands. Estimates suggest that adult humans have approximately 100 billion neurons in their brain, but unlike most cells, neurons don’t undergo cell division, so if they’re damaged they don’t grow back—except, apparently, in the hippocampus (associated with memory) and the olfactory bulb (associated with sense of smell). The process by which this occurs is unclear, and this image was taken during a project to determine how neurons are born—it actually depicts newborn nerve cells in an adult mouse’s brain.

(Image Credit: Dana Bradford)

If you think science isn’t beautiful, you are wrong.  (All images courtesy of Cell Picture Show)

Zebrafish Stripes Caused by Cells That Chase Each Other

A cellular game of run-and-chase could help form the iconic stripes on zebrafish skin. Contact between two types of skin cells, the black “melanophores” and the yellow “xanthophores,” prompts the melanophores to move away and the xanthophores to follow in hot pursuit, developmental biologists report online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers’ models suggest that such interactions lead to the pigment cells separating into the distinct bands of zebrafish stripes. To understand how interactions between cells might lead to striped or spotted skin, the scientists found a way to grow pigment cells from zebrafish tail fins in lab dishes. Pigment cells of the same type didn’t seem to interact. But when xanthophores and melanophores were near each other, the yellow cells (apparently attracted) reached out to touch the black ones. The black ones, in turn, were repulsed by the overture and moved away. Undeterred, the xanthophores followed. (In the gif [video], a yellow xanthophore chases a gray melanophore across the screen.) Cells from a zebrafish mutant called jaguar, which has broader, fuzzier stripes, behaved differently. Their black melanophores do not run from the yellow xanthophores, and the xanthophores do not chase them as ardently. This, the researchers say, could explain the mixed populations of yellow and black cells in the stripes’ fuzzy borders. The team hasn’t yet observed the cell movements in developing fish, but the work may help explain why mutations in genes that make proteins that are part of cell membranes can lead to different skin patterns in fish. It may also help explain how other animals—zebras, jaguars, leopards, or Dalmatians—get their patterned skin.

Via sciencemag.org

Crazy angry reactive lymphocyte in someone with EBV infection

Myeloblasts in AML

Some of you may be familiar with model organisms in biology but even so, you may think about mice, rabbits or flies rather than ctenophores. The whole purpose of having a model organism is to be able to understand particular biological functions/processes by using an organism that can be maintained easily, has a relatively short generation time and has its genome sequenced (this allows us to really understand their genetic makeup). Since this species of ctenophore (Mnemiopsis leidyi) has had its genome sequenced it allows us to identify key genes/proteins and try to determine their function.

The work I am currently doing for my project is focused on understanding the origin of the nervous system.

There's been a long standing debate amongst scientists over which species of animal first diverged from all other metazoans whether it be sponges or ctenophores. For a long time it has been thought that sponges are the sister group to all metazoans, although more recently studies have suggested that ctenophores are. Sponges are really simple animals that lack nervous systems, whereas ctenophores are more complex and have a nervous system. If ctenophores are then in fact found to be the sister group to all other metazoans, it poses the questions about whether the complex structures such as neurons and synapses evolved once or multiple times independently?

If you check you can see a diagram showing what I mean by the "sister group" to all metazoans. The first pic identifies sponges as the sister group, but with more analysis on a molecular basis, the 3rd pic could be possible.

Since most of the studies on neurons and nervous systems more generally are focused on metazoans, the work at this lab uses ctenophores to understand more about their complex biology with the aim of understanding the origins of neurons.

ID credit: divingfirst on 小红书

(please like, reblog and give proper credit if you use any of my gifs!)

Type B orcas using ice to exfoliate!

Natgeo

Type B orcas surfacing

Natgeo

Babesia

Let's learn about the Babesia parasite!

Caused by infected ticks

Leads to anemia & low platelets

Testing: thin & thick smears, morphology, parasitemia levels, PCR

Treatment depends on severity (ranges from antiprotozoal meds or exchange transfusion)

Ring-like formation in the RBCs = Babesia parasite! (Very similar morphology to Malaria)

Take a look at this newly diagnosed Multiple

Myeloma (MM) case!

MM is a type of cancer developed by the overproduction of plasma cells in the bone marrow (B-cell lineage). Plasma cells are responsible for the production of antibodies to fight infection within the body.

Helpful lab findings

C- hypercalcemia

R- renal failure (increased CREA+BUN)

A- anemia

B- bone lesions

Confirmatory testing

1. Serum protein electrophoresis: spike in the gamma wave aka monoclonal paraprotein (M-spike)

2. Immunofixation protein electrophoresis: identifies the type of immunoglobulin (heavy chain) present (IgA, IgG, [gE, etc.)

3. Free Light Chain Assay: determine if the immuglobulin is

Kappa or Lambda

4. Bone Marrow aspiration: take a look at the first picture.

60% of the bone marrow is most likely plasma cells

Different types of MM

-Smoldering MM (increased plasma cells in bone marrow & high protein. Does NOT follow CRAB)

-MGUS (decreased plasma cells in bone marrow)

-Light chain amyloidosis

Today’s Friend from Borneo is the Bornean Tree-hole Frog (Metaphrynella sundana)! He is singing his Beautiful Song from his hole in the middle of a tree! (Bonus Crested Toad (Ingerophrynus divergens)!)

Ammonites were some of the most diverse organisms in the ancient ocean. The Museum holds one of the world’s largest collections of ammonites, containing nearly two million specimens that represent 300 million years of Earth’s history!

Teachers: Earn graduate credit and advance your career in six weeks with our flexible online courses! Connect with the Museum’s scientists, labs, exhibitions, and specimens. You can choose from a variety of courses ranging from Marine Biology and the Solar System to Climate Change and Virology. The courses are asynchronous, providing participants with the flexibility to complete weekly activities at their own pace—and can be taken anywhere at any time! Subject to school/district approval, courses may be used toward professional development, salary advancement, and recertification. Sign up for our summer session today—classes start July 8!

Photo: A. Keding / © AMNH

What has no heart and no brain? No, it’s not your ex… it’s the barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). Also known as the dustbin-lid jellyfish (yes, really), this species can reach an impressive 35 in (90 cm) in diameter and can weigh up to 77 lbs (35 kg)! Like other jellies, this critter relies on its nervous system to function.

Photo: tato grasso, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

A new giant-screen film is on view in the Museum’s LeFrak Theater, starting today! In Turtle Odyssey, discover the wondrous life of a sea turtle named Bunji, from hatchling to adulthood, and the great migration undertaken by generations before her. As this turtle leaves the rookery on the Great Barrier Reef and swims hundreds of miles, she encounters many marine animals—including humpback whales, parrot fish, and even a great white shark—as well as threats to her survival, like plastic waste.

Beat the heat, visit the Museum, and enjoy this immersive giant-screen film on a 40-foot-high, 66-foot-wide screen with state-of-the-art digital sound!

The Summer Games are here, so let’s meet the gold medal champion for fastest shark in the sea: the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus)! This agile predator fish is one of the world’s fastest swimmers, able to reach a top speed of over 40 mph (64.3 kmh). For perspective, the current 100m freestyle world record holder swam at an overall speed of 4.7 mph (2.9 km/h). A model of this shark can be found in the Museum's Hall of Biodiversity.

Want to learn more? Become a Museum Member today! Plus, use promo code GAMES24 and we’ll include a FREE, limited-edition Summer Games tote bag.

Photo:  Alison Kock, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

regular lobsters start out as just little lobsters but spiny lobsters start out as these beautiful weird larvae that also evolved to ride on top of jellyfish. This jellyfish is too small though!!!

the deep sea creatures when a scientist shows up with a flashlight outta no where

hello 🐙

Wake up babe new fish dropped

Just found out about the weirdest shark ever

Prickly dogfish

GIRLY JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT CYERCE ELEGANS

If Cyerce nigricans is a butterfly, then this is a fairy... Cyerce nigricans for comparison:

'fairies dont exist' WRONG❗❗cyerce elegans

Church of Whale Fall

Teachers: Earn graduate credit and advance your career in six weeks with our flexible online courses! Connect with the Museum’s scientists, labs, exhibitions, and specimens. You can choose from a variety of courses ranging from Marine Biology and the Solar System to Climate Change and Virology. The courses are asynchronous, providing participants with the flexibility to complete weekly activities at their own pace—and can be taken anywhere at any time! Subject to school/district approval, courses may be used toward professional development, salary advancement, and recertification. Sign up for our summer session today—classes start July 8!

Photo: A. Keding / © AMNH

WIRED

There’s New Hope for an HIV Vaccine

A trial vaccine has succeeded in generating low levels of antibodies needed to target HIV. It’s a first but much-needed step toward preventi

"Since it was first identified in 1983, HIV has infected more than 85 million people and caused some 40 million deaths worldwide.

While medication known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, can significantly reduce the risk of getting HIV, it has to be taken every day to be effective. A vaccine to provide lasting protection has eluded researchers for decades. Now, there may finally be a viable strategy for making one.

An experimental vaccine developed at Duke University triggered an elusive type of broadly neutralizing antibody in a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial. The findings were published today [May 17, 2024] in the scientific journal Cell.

“This is one of the most pivotal studies in the HIV vaccine field to date,” says Glenda Gray, an HIV expert and the president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, who was not involved in the study.

A few years ago, a team from Scripps Research and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) showed that it was possible to stimulate the precursor cells needed to make these rare antibodies in people. The Duke study goes a step further to generate these antibodies, albeit at low levels.

“This is a scientific feat and gives the field great hope that one can construct an HIV vaccine regimen that directs the immune response along a path that is required for protection,” Gray says.

-via WIRED, May 17, 2024. Article continues below.

Vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize a virus or other pathogen. They introduce something that looks like the virus—a piece of it, for example, or a weakened version of it—and by doing so, spur the body’s B cells into producing protective antibodies against it. Those antibodies stick around so that when a person later encounters the real virus, the immune system remembers and is poised to attack.

While researchers were able to produce Covid-19 vaccines in a matter of months, creating a vaccine against HIV has proven much more challenging. The problem is the unique nature of the virus. HIV mutates rapidly, meaning it can quickly outmaneuver immune defenses. It also integrates into the human genome within a few days of exposure, hiding out from the immune system.

“Parts of the virus look like our own cells, and we don’t like to make antibodies against our own selves,” says Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and one of the authors on the paper.

The particular antibodies that researchers are interested in are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can recognize and block different versions of the virus. Because of HIV’s shape-shifting nature, there are two main types of HIV and each has several strains. An effective vaccine will need to target many of them.

Some HIV-infected individuals generate broadly neutralizing antibodies, although it often takes years of living with HIV to do so, Haynes says. Even then, people don’t make enough of them to fight off the virus. These special antibodies are made by unusual B cells that are loaded with mutations they’ve acquired over time in reaction to the virus changing inside the body. “These are weird antibodies,” Haynes says. “The body doesn’t make them easily.”

Haynes and his colleagues aimed to speed up that process in healthy, HIV-negative people. Their vaccine uses synthetic molecules that mimic a part of HIV’s outer coat, or envelope, called the membrane proximal external region. This area remains stable even as the virus mutates. Antibodies against this region can block many circulating strains of HIV.

The trial enrolled 20 healthy participants who were HIV-negative. Of those, 15 people received two of four planned doses of the investigational vaccine, and five received three doses. The trial was halted when one participant experienced an allergic reaction that was not life-threatening. The team found that the reaction was likely due to an additive in the vaccine, which they plan to remove in future testing.

Still, they found that two doses of the vaccine were enough to induce low levels of broadly neutralizing antibodies within a few weeks. Notably, B cells seemed to remain in a state of development to allow them to continue acquiring mutations, so they could evolve along with the virus. Researchers tested the antibodies on HIV samples in the lab and found that they were able to neutralize between 15 and 35 percent of them.

Jeffrey Laurence, a scientific consultant at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, says the findings represent a step forward, but that challenges remain. “It outlines a path for vaccine development, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he says.

For one, he says, a vaccine would need to generate antibody levels that are significantly higher and able to neutralize with greater efficacy. He also says a one-dose vaccine would be ideal. “If you’re ever going to have a vaccine that’s helpful to the world, you’re going to need one dose,” he says.

Targeting more regions of the virus envelope could produce a more robust response. Haynes says the next step is designing a vaccine with at least three components, all aimed at distinct regions of the virus. The goal is to guide the B cells to become much stronger neutralizers, Haynes says. “We’re going to move forward and build on what we have learned.”

-via WIRED, May 17, 2024