Oxygen fuels the fire of life, but sometimes we need firefighters, and in this case we need them desperately
Stephanie Wall, is a post-doctoral student in the UAB Department of Pediatrics with a research focus in neonatal lung development.
In Stephanie’s Discoveries in the Making Talk at Hoover Library on March 14, 2016 she revealed how complex “Breathing Life into Premature Babies” can be. Premature babies hastephaniewallve underdeveloped lungs requiring high-oxygen treatment for their survival, yet this life-saving treatment further compromises the baby’s own natural defenses. Innate immune and antioxidant systems are severely weakened compared to full-term infants. Oxygen therapy in pre-term infants can lead to increased oxidative stress and more severe conditions such as long-term lung disease, or Bronchopulmonary Dyplasia (BPD). Stephanie wants to know “if we kick-start the baby’s natural antioxidant system [early], can we prevent this damaging oxidative stress produced in the baby’s lungs due to therapeutic oxygen treatment?” She is using an FDA approved gold compound that can trigger the body’s own natural antioxidants to test this question, and has promising results in a mouse model of premature lung development.
Exploring the mystery of bacteria that cause cavities and their role in overall human health
Dental hygiene is not only important for your oral health, but your overall health as well. Cavities are a multifactorial infectious disease that occur at alarming rates of up to 80 percent in children under five. Causes of cavities include too much dietary sugar (especially items containing sucrose) and not properly flossing or brushing your teeth with fluoride containing toothpaste. Time is also an important factor. Despite the presence of bacteria, it a can take tooth decay more than 12 months to develop, with children under five being at higher risk compared to other populations.
Are older adults receiving acute stroke treatment?
Stroke is the number one cause of adult disability in the United States. The most common type of stroke is ischemic (non-bleeding), which occurs when there is sudden loss of blood flow to an area of the brain, causing loss of neurological functioning. Symptoms of ischemic stroke include, but are not limited to, sudden onset numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, difficulty speaking or understanding speech, difficulty with walking or balance, confusion. The key is that the loss of normal function comes on suddenly. There are many risk factors for ischemic stroke, some out of our control, like race and age; and some that we can control, like blood pressure and smoking. Stroke is a time sensitive illness, meaning that when it occurs, it is important to seek immediate medical attention by calling 911.
Read more: Are older adults receiving acute stroke treatment?
Exploring memory storage and retrieval through neuroscience and art
The average human brain weighs about 3 pounds and contains 80 to 100 billion neurons, which are the cells that store information. But how do these cells store information? How do we retrieve that information? How do researchers study memory?
Mika Guzman Karlsson, an MD/PhD candidate from the Sweatt lab, and Megan Rich, a PhD student from the Bolding lab, both from the Department of Neurobiology, described how memories are stored and retrieved at the Discoveries in the Making event at the Homewood Library on April 14, 2016.
Read more: Exploring memory storage and retrieval through neuroscience and art
The relationship between stress and risk for type 2 diabetes in women
Stress occurs when the demands in daily life exceed ones ability to handle it. Stress can occur in many different areas of life: home, environmental, work, and so forth. Although everyone experiences stress, not everyone reacts the same. When people are under stress their bodies can release certain hormones that could be harmful over time. While stress doesn’t directly cause disease, it can increase the risk of developing a wide range of illnesses, or make current diagnoses worse.
Read more: The relationship between stress and risk for type 2 diabetes in women
