Genetics

Wow aren't genetics great. Well not all that great, but its crazy how they work. Its amazing how once a baby is being made they first start off with a bunch of little cells and then soon form a lot of cells. We just got done doing a baby lab. Where me and my spouse Vanessa flipped a coin and decided what we were having. We had a boy and we named it Michael.

My understaning Genetics is that our parents gave us some of there genes to us. The reason why we one of our parents features and maybe not a lot of the other is because one parent might be more dominant then the other which makes us have more of one parents genes.

At first parents have a 50% 50% chance of having a boy or a girl. A boy triats are XY and a girl traits are XX. If the male takes over an X trait its a girl just because the mother can only take over an X there for you have a girl with a XX trait. If the male takes over a Y trait then you have a boy because the mother again can only take over a X trait. So XY together you have a boy.

Is it possible for your baby to have something that you don't have? The answer is yes. This can happen by Recessive. Recessive means that the trait is hidden in the mother or fathers genes and you'll end up getting it. For example me I have a mole and so does my grandma if you can see it mine on the left side and hers is on the right as for my parents do not have it.

So thats my understanding of genetics as we start to grow.

Stem Cell

As I read an article about stem cells  I found it to be really interesting. I found out that there unique properties of all stem cells are that they can split up and renew themselves, they are unspecialized , and give rise to specialized cell types. Some of the words that were important to me and that i needed to understand were cell-based therapies, differentiation, embryonic stem line, proliferation, plasticity, and pluripotent.

Cell-based therapies-  treatment in which stem cells are introduced to differentiate into the specific cell type required to repair damages or destroyed or tissues.

Differentiation- The process whereby an unspecialized embryonic cell acquires the features of a specialized such as a heart liver or muscle.

Embryonic stem cell line- Embryonic stem cell which have been cultured under in vitro conditions that allow proliferation without differentiation for months to years.

Proliferation- Expansion of the number of cells by the continuous division of single cells into two identical daughter cells

Pluripotent- having ability to give rise to all of the various cell types of the body.

Plasticity-  the quality of being easily shaped or molded


Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In many tissues they have to the internal repair system as long as the person is still alive. When a stem cell divides each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become a different stem cell. Like a muscle cell or a red blood cell or even a brain cell. Just imagine if we were all cells and we kept making duplicates of ourselves that would be a lot of people on earth.

Stem cells are important for living organisms because the inner cell give rise to the entire body of the organism. Also the stem cells replace the ones that are lost through normal wear and tear injury or disease. Stem cells also provide a new type of potential. That is to treat diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. In order for this to take place much more work is needed. This is to be done in a laboratory and the clinic to understand how to use these cells for (one of our key terms) cell-based therapies to treat disease.

Stem cells only work when developing and growth. Also if you had an injury in any part of your body. In my understanding of stem cells. Once you are growing inside of you mothers womb you start developing stem cells which divide up into so many cells. Each cell has its own function to maintain. Like one can be for the skin bone heart and lungs, another one can be for the veins blood and fingers and so on. Once you are born you are still developing these cells as you get older. Once your old enough to walk lets say your riding your bike and you fall. You have hurt your arm and scraped your leg. Quickly the stem cells form cells and divide up into what you need to heal your arm and your scraped leg, and as you get older and stem cells will stay with you forever and ever so where you are and get hurt the stem cells are able to repair any damage you have cause to yourself or them.

Click and Clone Lab

Purpose / Hypothesis: Our purpose is to see if the clone will come out exactly the same.
  The mouse that we clone will be brown.


Materials:

Mimi- Mouse we will clone (Brown)
Megdo- Egg cell donor (Black)
Momi- Surrgate mother to grow Mimi clone (White)
Microscope
Petri Dishes
Sharp Pipette
Blunt Pipette
Chemical to Stimulate cell division

Procedures:

1. Isolate donors cells from mimi and megdo
2. Remove and discard the nucleus from the egg cell
3. Transfer the somatic cell nucleus into the enucleated egg cell
4. Stimulate cell division
5. Implant the embryo into Momi the surrogate mother
6. Deliver the baby mouse clone of Mimi

Results:

By using the egg cell and the Somatic cells I was able to clone Mimi. First I had to suck the nucleus form the egg cell which made it an enucleated egg cell. Then put it in a dish. Then I had to move the somatic cell with the enucleated egg. Under the microscope I had to suck the Nucleus form the Somatic cell and inject in into the enucleated egg cell. In order for the DNA to re-programmed it takes several hours. Then I had to put a drop of a liquid chemical that mimics the cellular events. Then we have to wait several hours for the cell to divide a few times. After all thats done we have to insert the embryo into the womb of Momi. After 19 days we are ready to deliver to baby mouse.


Conclusion:

In conclusion the mouse came out exactly the same as Mimi. In my hypothesis I stated the the mouse we clone will be brown. I was right. All the genetics came from the somatic nucleus donor.

Self Reflection What you'll wish you'd known

I've recently read the article called What you'll wish you'd known. I understand where the guy is coming from. He is exactly right about when people ask what you plan on doing in life just to start a conversation. That has happen to me a lot. Its weird in one of his paragraph he states that its a bad way to say don't give up on your dreams. In the first couple of paragraph I understand that what he trying to say is that there is no easy way to tell you about your plans in life. That sometimes the way people word there words may be offended or just stupid about what they say. Like in one of his paragraph he says if a 4ft man wants to be in the NBA he would feel stupid telling him you can do anything if you really try. The better way to say something to someone is whatever someone else can do you can to. Then ask what are your abilities and what are there abilities. What someone else with your abilities you can do to.

As for me I realized that it is my last year of high school and im decided and undecided at the same time. So I wish someone would give me a hint on what I should do. My first option is going to school for my RN. Then I realized that I don't want to go to school for very long, so going for my RN would be the best part for me. Then I notice that I wasn't very good in science and thats what you need for all the classes. My scond option was not as good as my first option. It was to be a hair cutter just because you don't have to go to school very long. I think the longest you have to go for is 6 months to year. Then I realized that how am I going to make a living on cutting hair. I'm better off with the RN, but that takes two years worth of schooling.

I've had a lot of people ask me what I wanted to do in life and I told them it was the RN. They all told me that was a good choice. After a while my grandma and my mom both were in the hospital for some time and i ask the nurses about there jobs. They told me it was a lot of work to be done but it is worth it. Also they said if I was to be an RN then I would always have a job no matter where I lived. I told them that I didn't want to be in school for no more then two years, but one of the process to becoming an RN takes three years. So I wish I'd known what i wanted to become a lot earlier then I did now. That way I wouldn't be all worried about how my life would turn out.

Mitosis

INTERPHASE	PROPHASE	METAPHASE	ANAPHASE	TELOPHASE

                                Interphase       Prophase       Metaphase      Anaphase         Telophase         Total

# of Cells in each        20                    10                  3                     2                       1                  36



Percent of Cells        56%                  27%                 8%                 5%                   2%              100%




In this lab we had to tell which cells from the tip of an onion root. We classify each cell based on what phase it is in. Then we counted up the cells found in each phase and use those numbers to predict how much time a dividing cell spends in each phase. Mitosis is the process of making a bunch of cells making copies of itself.

1. What percent of cells were in interphase?

55%

2. What percent were in mitosis?

100%

3. Which phase of mitosis takes the longest?

Interphase

4. During which stage is the nucleolus visible as a dark spot?

Interphase

5. How can you recognize a cell in metaphase?

They have little lines in them opposite of each other