My Research Interests
Cloning:
Modeling
What is cloning?
Cloning is the production of one or more individual plants or animals that are
identical (genotypically and phenotypically) to another plant or animal from
which it has been derived. In other word it could be called artificial twinning
because it simulates the mechanism by which twins naturally develop.
How embryo cloning is done?
Human embryo cloning starts with a standard IVF (in vitro fertilization) procedure.
Zygote (fertilized egg) is allowed to develop into a blastula (a hollow mass
of cells). The zygote divides first into two cells, then four... and so fort.
A chemical is added to the dish to remove the zone pellucid covering. The material
provides nutrients to the cells to promote cell division. With the covering
removed, the blastula is divided into individual cells which are deposited on
individual dishes. they are then coated with an artificial zona pellucida and
allowed to divide and develop. The experiment by Sillman et al showed that the
best results could be obtained by interruping the zygote at the two cell stage.
Many of these pairs of zygotes were able to develop to the 32 cell stage, but
no further. They might well have had the potential to develop further and even
mature into a viable fetus, except that the original ovum was defective and
would have died anyway. For ethical reasons, the researchers selected enbryos
which had no possibility of ever maturing into fetuses, and thus into newborn
babies.
With the exceptin of the sperm and egg, every cell in the body contain all of
the genetic material in its nucleous to produce exact clone of the original
body. But in every cell type the cells have been biochemically programmed to
perform limited function. In other word every cell contain all the genes but
only limited genes that are required for the normal functioning of the cell
type is expressed and the other genes are turned off. So based on the above
information we should be able to create a human clone using any one cell from
the origin. However there
are problems that we should over come.
Although human cloning will undoubtedly strike a fear and raise an ethical
outcry, but if one posses and think deeply and fairly, it is not that different
from experimenting on primater and other animals used in research laboratories.
Lets think beyond what we see and what we hear and be fair, would not you say
yes cloning is not different from these experiments. I know that cloning like
any other research and experiment has its risks and adverse effects and question
its morality ( such as Cloning is playing god, cloning is not natural....),
but one should remember that unless we take some kinds of risks we not going
to to achieve anything. In every step of the life a risk could be involved.
We know that we can not illuminate risk, but for sure we could minimize it,
so in order to minimize the risks of cloning we should do further research instead
of opposing/prohibiting it. God created diseases and cure for diseases. Thousands
of people die each year waiting for available human organs for transplant. Just
imagine that it is our loved one, would not it be great if we create transgenic
animals (animals which have human genes, e.g. their heart, liver or kidney might
be useable as organ transplant for humans).
Decades back there was the same sorts of opposition with heart transplant, but
now we all enjoy the benefit of heart transplant surgery. If we go ahead with
the human cloning not only we gona understand better about humans, about the
function of our mind, brain and other organs but people would probably have
available to them in the future private facilities where their clones are housed
and waiting for the day when this or that organ is needed as a replacement part
in the originating human. Well i know that hard -nosed decisions have to be
made and what i said is decades away from now, but the prize would be invaluable.
Cancer is a killer of human being and still there is not cure for this killer.
There are many forms of treatment such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy laser surgery
and so on exist but none seem to be effective to eliminate the disease..
Monoclonal antibody (Ab) technology emerged in the 1970s, and many believe that
this new form of therapy would be effective in the treatment of human cancers.
Clinical trials using humanized Abs have demonstrated that human/mouse chimeric
Abs have enhanced anti-tumor activity, decreased immunogenicity and a very favorable
toxicity profile.
I am interested in humanized mouse chimeric anti tumor unconjugated monoclonal
Abs. Why am I interested in monoclonal Ab therapy? Well because the immune system
is both a sensitive and a specific entity. It will target specific cells (concerous
cells) and therefore would have low toxicity profile.
However the problems such as the pharmacokinetics of the monoclonal Abs sold
be solved for the future.
Computer Science Applications to Molecular Biology:
Bioinformatics is the study of the inherent structure of biological information
and biological system. It brings together the avalanche of systemic biological
data with the analytical theory and practical tools of mathematics and computer
science It integrates courses and research in biology with computer modeling
and information sciences.
My interest is a computer science modeling technique named Petri net. This is
a tool for the study of systems. Petri net theory allows a system to be modeled
by a Petri net, a mathematical representation of the system. Analysis of the
Petri net can then reveal important information about the structure and dynamic
behavior of the modeled system. Then this information can be used to evaluate
the modeled system and suggest changes and understand the nature of the system
under study.
One would ask why should we do model a biological system? well I am interested
in this area because it has many benefits and advantages. For instance education
institutions could benefit from it and use the models for the propose of teaching,
as it would visualize the system and help the students to see and learn about
the system. Further it could be useful tool for the research institutions as
they would be in control of the modeled system and observe the changes and improvements
of the system under study.