misciwriterseditors blog, RNA2026

Dr. Sarah Woodson: Slip stick folding of CAG repeat drives aggregation of expanded HTT RNA

Live Blogger: Lauren Heinzinger

Editors: Ryan Schildcrout, Brenna Saladin

This piece was written live during the 10th annual RNA Symposium, “RNA Frontiers: From Mechanisms to Medicine” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine.

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a fatal hereditary neurodegenerative disorder that typically emerges between the ages of 30 and 50. It’s a progressive disease that damages neurons in the brain that control voluntary body movement, resulting in uncontrolled dance-like movements called chorea and abnormal postures. Other symptoms of HD include changes in behavior, emotion, personality, and thinking. Despite modern medicine and all of our amazing medical advancements, there is still no cure for HD. This makes it especially important to understand the mechanisms underlying how HD damages these important neural cells. 

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misciwriterseditors blog, RNA2026

Dr. Madeleine Oudin: A splice-switching antisense oligonucleotide approach for pediatric epilepsies

Live Blogger: Brenna Saladin

Editor: Ryan Schildcrout

This piece was written live during the 10th annual RNA Symposium, “RNA Frontiers: From Mechanisms to Medicine” hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for RNA Biomedicine.

Michelle Hasting introduces the third Keynote Speaker at the RNA symposium by saying Madeleine Oudin has an incredible story to tell. While Dr. Oudin is well known for tumor resistance and tumor microenvironment research, her lab recently switched gears to an entirely new subject matter. Michelle concludes her introduction noting that she believes Oudin qualifies as one of the strongest scientists she knows in terms of the rigor she exercises within her research.

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misciwriterseditors blog

From Printer Inkjets to Diagnostic Tests: The Promising World of Microfluidics

Written by: Camila Gonzalez Curbelo

Edited by: Nick Janne, Hector Mendoza, Jessica Li, and Ryan Schildcrout

Illustrated by: Caroline Harms

Like many students, I enjoy trivia nights at my local university bar. This past winter, during a Family Feud-style event, I found myself intrigued by a stirring bonus question round. The task was to name the most underestimated technologies regularly used by students. Among the top five answers displayed on the projector was the printer–an unassuming contender overshadowed by the likes of the laptop–yet a worthy candidate whose evolution has been critical for scientific discovery. 

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misciwriterseditors blog

Behind the Peel: The Chemical Complexities of Apples

Written by: Emily L. Eberhardt

Edited by: Olivia Pifer Alge, Jessica Li, Jeremy Chen, and Ryan Schildcrout

Illustrated by: Paola Medina-Cabrera

“Vaccines are full of chemicals! Wait… so are apples?” While scrolling through social media the other day, I came across an old meme where a cheeky individual attempts to pass off the chemical makeup of an apple as that of a vaccine. While looking at the list of hyphenated, long-winded names, I fact-checked the chemical composition of an apple, expecting to find a simple source. Instead, I discovered decades of research dedicated to thousands of species of apples and their chemical complexities. Surprisingly, the study of apples happens to be a (don’t mind the pun) fruitful field of study.

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misciwriterseditors blog, Spanish

¿Pueden las plantas aprender? Un sorprendente debate académico.

Autor: Kate Giffin 

Editores: Henry Ertl, Sarah Bassiouni, Sophie Hill y Jennifer Baker

Traducción: Ilka Rodriguez-Calero, Maria Dolores Sanchez Ruiz y Rocio Cisneros  

En el año de 1633, Galileo Galilei se encontraba en arresto domiciliario por una idea herética: que la Tierra da vueltas alrededor del sol. A pesar de que en la actualidad es considerado como uno de los padres de la ciencia moderna, la Inquisición Romana de la Iglesia Católica de aquel tiempo lo declaró como un “sospechoso de herejía con vehemencia”; ya que la idea desafiaba la visión geocéntrica de la Iglesia Católica en ese momento.

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misciwriterseditors blog

“Pivot!”: How I navigated a post-PhD swerve to find a career

Written by: Ruby Miller

Edited by: Jennifer Baker, Julia Donovan, Victoria Sturgess, and Ryan Schildcrout

Illustrated by: Jacquelyn Roberts

“What did you mean when you said ‘pivot’?” 

This inquiring comment from Chandler is the final beat from that iconic scene in the TV show Friends where Ross has enlisted Rachel and Chandler to help him move a couch up the stairs. Even after Ross sketches out how to enact the move and directs his friends while traversing the staircase, all three friends end up stuck on the staircase, pinned under the heavy furniture, wondering what went wrong.

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misciwriterseditors blog

Genetics and Global Policies

Written by: Christa Ventresca

Edited by: Christina Del Greco, Andres Rivera Ruiz, Kate Giffin, and Jennifer Baker

Illustrated by: Saaj Chattopadhyay

This is part three of a three-part blog series on genetic testing and its impacts on personal identity. Make sure to read parts one and two first!

As I’ve discussed in the last two blog posts, genetic testing is frequently seen as objective, and this view is promoted by genetic ancestry companies through their advertising (Parthasarathy, 2010). Yet when an ancestry test taker is incorporating genetic ancestry testing into their identity, most people see the results as flexible and reconfigure their identity through conversations with their community (Panofsky and Donovan, 2019; Marcon, Rachul, and Caulfield; 2021; and Nelson, 2008). 

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misciwriterseditors blog

The Brains Behind the Operation: How Disrupted Epigenetics Can Lead to Pediatric Brain Tumors

Written and illustrated by: Dana Messinger

Edited by: Olivia Pifer Alge, Julia Donovan, and Jennifer Baker

In September 2014, Ann Arbor local Chad Carr, grandson of University of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor just days before his 4th birthday. His mother rallied the community for support and the #ChadTough mantra raised national attention. Meanwhile, Chad underwent 30 rounds of radiation and a clinical trial, unfortunately passing just 15 months later at the age of 5. 

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misciwriterseditors blog

Reoviruses use molecular switchblades to invade cells

Written and illustrated by: Madison Pletan

Edited by: Sarah Bassiouni, Claire Shudde, Sophie Maxfield, and Jennifer Baker

Imagine you’re a virus—a tiny shell of proteins surrounding some DNA or RNA. Your one mission is to infiltrate a living cell, navigate through its complicated compartments, and ultimately hijack it to make hundreds or even thousands of copies of yourself to perpetuate infection. As a virus, you are unable to multiply on your own. Since you lack the machinery to make new proteins and genetic material, you must enter a cell if you are to survive.

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misciwriterseditors blog

Genetic Ancestry Testing and Identity Among Different Social Groups: Three Case Studies

Written by: Christa Ventresca

Edited by: Christina Del Greco, Andres Rivera Ruiz, Kate Giffin, and Jennifer Baker

Illustrated by: Saaj Chattopadhyay

This is part two of a three-part blog series on genetic testing and its impacts on personal identity. Make sure to read part one first; part three is coming soon!

Recently, it has become very common to take a genetic ancestry test! But it is much less common to critique them. This is because the study of genetics have become integral to science and public understanding of ancestry. The importance of genetics in society has been furthered by genetic ancestry companies which emphasize the perceived objectivity of genetics to attract customers to their genetic tests (Parthasarathy, 2010). 

Continue reading “Genetic Ancestry Testing and Identity Among Different Social Groups: Three Case Studies” →