Project Baseline Aims to Ward Off Illness Before We Get Sick

        Unfortunately, when discovering diseases it is normally in the late stage of the disease when it is too late.  With new technology and research doctors are working on a way to determine if you will have a disease such as cancer before it shows and becomes apparent.  The thing with cancer is that the earlier you can detect the malignant cells the easier it is to treat and hopefully rid the cancer from your body.
        Project Baseline, started by Dr. Gambhir, who lost his teenage son to brain cancer initiated the study involving 10,000 volunteers of different backgrounds to be studied vigorously for at least four years.  This project collects an immense amount of research on each healthy adult by "analyzing their micro biomes, sequencing their genomes, subjecting them to a variety of stance and assessing their cognitive health.  They are also equipping volunteers with new wearable technology from Verily that records their nightly sleep patterns and tracks their heart rhythms and physical activity." (O'Connor, 2018)  Dr. Gambhir is conducting this research to help himself better understand the development of diseases from the healthy stage, to the diseased stage.  Project Baseline looks for precursurs to cancer, cardiovascular disease, aortic aneurysms, and other killers, so that medical attention can be reached before it is too late.
        The only downside to this research is that the scientists are conveying all of the research conducted on that patient back to them, which may cause anxiety and stress, leading to more tests needing to be done.  Doctors are working together to figure out a way to tell their patients the data found in a way which will not worry them and allow them to understand them fully without panicking.  Would you allow yourself to be one of the volunteers for Project Baseline?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/well/live/project-baseline-cancer-prevention-heart-disease-illness.html

https://www.projectbaseline.com

MosquitoMate

The MosquitoMate project is to use Wolbachia pipientis bacterium as a tool against the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). The project plan to release the male mosquito carrying Wolbachia out to the wild to mate with wild female. Afterward, the fertilized eggs cannot hatch, because the paternal chromosomes do not form properly. The Wolbachia  bacterium is similar to pesticide that killed only mosquitoes and no other insects will get affected by this. With this tool, we can eliminate diseases transmit by mosquitoes like Zika, dengue, and Chikungunya. Many countries have been testing this project out in the developed countries with the lowest and affordable cost at $1 per person. The MosquitoMate will kill the majority of the mosquitoes population in the areas that its will be release.

https://www-nature-com.ezproxy.stockton.edu/news/us-government-approves-killer-mosquitoes-to-fight-disease-1.22959
https://www-nature-com.ezproxy.stockton.edu/news/us-reviews-plan-to-infect-mosquitoes-with-bacteria-to-stop-disease-1.19967

The African Genome Variation Project

Through the African Genome Variation Project, scientists have completed a comprehensive study of genetic diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa. This project analyzed the DNA of 1,800 people living across Africa for genetic risk factors for disease. Most of these types of projects and research have been done in Europe while little has been known about Africa, the most genetically diverse region in the world.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loa5m3vYuO1qbh26io1_1280.jpg

The researchers were curious to understand if there was underlying genetic susceptibility that caused some diseases. They were not able to get the information they needed since Africa has a large variation in genomes and has barely been genetically studied. This lead to UK and US researchers collecting genetic material from people in Africa and the researchers found some different variations with region. For example, South African people are less likely to carry a genetic mutation that protects from malaria. Also Africans are more likely to have a greater risk of high blood pressure compared to Europeans.
The most surprising thing that researchers learned was that Africans are not as diverse as researchers expected. This is a good thing because it means large scale trials can be used to understand disease susceptibility. This project will also be able to help scientists more clearly understand diseases and why people are more likely to get certain diseases. Scientists will also be able to learn about more ancient migration patterns in early humans.
I found it surprising that not much genetic information has been gathered in Africa. There should be projects like this all around the world to help understand more about humans. It will also be extremely interesting if links are found been certain genes and diseases since everyone was panicking over ebola 2 weeks ago. This type of project will be helpful in the medical and genetic field.

Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30318291