http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ht3m6p8iZ0.
Post a PCRC on the Blog:
The instructions are on the right side of the blog. You need five entries
0. What I already knew (0. Knew: ...)
1. What I Learned (1. Learned: ...)
2. Most pressing questions? (2.
Pressing ?: ...)
3. Presentation topic (3.
Presentation: ...)
4. Thoughts on class or systems
biology, etc. (4. Thoughts: ...)
0. Knew: Phase Space and the complexity of biology
ReplyDelete1. Learned: The word homunculi and that I need a better swing setup.
2. Pressing ?: Should the traditional educational landscape be altered to help drive these types of investigations?
3. Presentation: About how the complexity of biology drives interactions between traditionally monolithic scientific entities.
4. Thoughts: I believe the future biological research will increasingly blur the lines of traditional scientific disciplines, particularly when it comes to the complexity of systems biology.
Cameron Togrye
ReplyDelete1B/TEDxWikswo
0. Knew: The necessity of individuals with backgrounds in a number of various fields of study for the successful creation of organs on chips.
1. Learned: I wasn't aware that cardiovascular failures constituted such a significant portion of drug trial failings.
2. Pressing: Is there potential in the future to create organs on chips which model various parts of specific organs, as many organs have certain sections of differently differentiated cells that interact in the same organ.
3. Presentation: The vital importance of intellectual variety in the solving of societies most pressing issues.
4. Thoughts: I think the notion of challenging the "silo mentality" has application in virtually all realms of study which can lend to human progress. It seems like more and more today problems require more intellectual competence in multiple subjects that before may have seemed unrelated (science and religion) (Econ and Physics) etc.
Kate Jones
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B/ TEDx Wikswo
0. Knew: Before watching this talk, I knew that Vanderbilt was very involved with organs on a chip. I also knew that researchers intend to link the separate organs to model a human on a chip and see how the organs interact in an environment similar to that of the body.
1. Learned: I learned that a very large percentage of drugs, 40%, fail due to cardiac complications. I appreciated that the presentation showed how a drug could pass when tested on heart cells but when the organs on chips are connected, the liver converts the drug into a form that is harmful to the heart.
2. Pressing ?: I was concerned with the adverse reactions an organ on a chip may not show, especially with the example of a brain on a chip. If the brain model does not model cognitive ability but only vitality of cells, I would be concerned about impaired cognitive ability. I would want to know how organs on a chip could be adapted to test for other adverse reactions to drugs or to test the efficacy of drugs to improve brain function.
3. Presentation: I think that this class would provide a good opportunity to talk about the research going on at Vanderbilt. As students, we sometimes do not realize the work that our professors and peers do and the projects they are involved with! Organs on a chip has the potential to be an enormous breakthrough in the medical community and making students aware of future discoveries would be exciting.
4: Thoughts: I liked that the presentation involved an example of a drug that fails during testing and how using a homunculus could prevent future deaths and other adverse reactions during testing.
Juan Gnecco
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B/ TEDx Wikswo
0.Knew: I knew about the development of these microfluidic devices the ability to better represent the physiology of organs compared to static singular (silos) organ cell cultures.
1. Learned about the challenges and to focus on the plethora of variables that can must be considered during development. Also about the phase space in terms of organ cultures.
2. Pressing: the concern that biology and engineering have historically been segregated and knowledge itself has been allocated to nodes rather than a systemic philosophy.
3. Presentation: The reductionist perspective on systemic organ function as a way to integrate several different fields of study to develop better models.
4. Thoughts: Interesting perspective on OoC development and need as well as an interactive way to understand the difficulties and ways we can overcome these issues.
Cami Johnson
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B: TEDx Wikswo
0. Knew: I knew that several microfluidics devices could be connected to form a system of organs in order to test drugs more effectively, and that knowledge from a range of disciplines is necessary in order to do this.
1. Learned: I didn't realize how critical the interactions between organs are to the effects of drugs. Knowing this, testing drugs on cell cultures in petri dishes is obviously only giving a portion of the picture.
2. Pressing ?: Can organs-on-a-chip match the complexity of an animal model? How long before these systems can be used clinically? How can we best encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration, a necessity for projects like this?
3. Presentation: Connecting organs-on-a-chip to form homunculi can serve as a better model for drug testing than current techniques, and expertise in a range of fields is necessary for the further development of these systems.
4. Thoughts: I think homunculi are fascinating and definitely an important direction to move in for drug testing. I also thought the presentation raised some good points about collaboration among fields and avoiding being boxed into a single category.
0. Knew: The general complexity of in vivo organs and their intercommunication.
ReplyDelete1. Learned: The concept of phase space, and the extent to which drug trials are currently failing.
2. Pressing: Given the massive complexity of these systems and the wealth of knowledge one must have to understand them, is it likely that any one person will be able to unify the many systems into one functional homunculus? Just like computers are too complex for any one person to know the circuitry of every part, could organs on a chip be too complex for complete understanding?
3. Presentation: The principles of organs on a chip, their overall complexity, the concept of phase space, and the need for interdisciplinary study in modern research.
4. Thoughts: Interdisciplinary research is definitely a necessity, but I wonder how much it can be realized by single individuals.
0. Knew: about the complexity of the body and various interactions between different organs, as well as the drug development process, from using a petri dish to animal testing and clinical trials, and the various problems it presents.
ReplyDelete1. Learned: More about the role that organ-organ interactions play in adverse drug reactions, and how homunculi could be used in the drug testing process.
2. Pressing ?: Making the use of homunculi more widespread in the drug approval process.
3. Presentation: Combining various homunculi, making use of ‘organ phase space’ to create a complex model of the human body that can be used to safely test for adverse drug reactions in humans.
4. Thoughts: This technology is very interesting, particularly the applications of observing if drugs will cross the blog brain barrier, as I know this is a large obstacle for treating brain tumors and diseases like schizophrenia. I also love the interdisciplinary nature of this field of study, as I think this type of collaboration is the key to very exciting intellectual progress.
Arman Chowdhury
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B: TEDx Wikswo
0. Knew: Biology is complex. Drug trials involve petri dishes, mice and then human trials.Gene expression in each organ is different.
1. Learned: Scientists all over the world are trying to build homunculi to understand drug development, environmental toxicology, and human physiology. Learned about the concepts of phase space, silo and silo mentality. Instead of electronic chip, human cells are being used to make microfluidic organ chips that work like real organs. Organs on a chip currently being developed include lung-on-a-chip, mammary-gland-on-a-chip, kidney-on-a-chip, Tcells-on-a-lymph-node-on-a-chip, brain-on-a-chip (to study movement of drug over the blood brain barrier).
2. Pressing ?: Can human-on-a-chip be as sophisticated as the total biology of a human being? For example, can the heart-on-a-chip incorporate endocrine and neural signals into its activities? How difficult and effective would it be to extract stem cells from individuals for personalized medicine?
3. Presentation: Explained the complexity of phase space with swing example. Showed how human-on-a-chip can be used to predict the body’s collective response to a drug being developed. Explained how gene expression phase space is even more complex, and is essential to understanding diseases and designing treatments, which can be more effectively achieved using human-on-a-chip. Explained that interdisciplinary collaboration is required for designing human-on-a-chip.
4. Thoughts: Organs-on-a-chip are not as simple as they look and a tremendous amount of cross disciplinary effort has to go into designing these microfluidic chips. I thought the intellectual phase space among Physics, Engineering and Physiology was a very interesting demonstration which showed that diverse knowledge is required in order to design something truly unique.
Tim Lee
ReplyDelete1B/TEDxWikswo
0. Knew: The multidisciplinary facet of understanding how to model humans. The complexity of how the human body works presents a challenge for how we can model the human body.
1. Learned: The idea of phase space and its ability to mathematically model multiple facets of motion. The phrase of silo mentality which tries to develop solutions independently from other disciplines.
2. Pressing: To what extent can microfluidic devices model the human body? What can we do to address the unforeseen complications that the human body might have that the organ on a chip didn't have? At what point can we be sure that the organ on a chip is a perfect model for testing?
3. Presentation: The complexity of the body and how that directly relates to how complex microfluidic devices must be. The idea of silo mentality and phase space modeling to demonstrate the need to consider multidisciplinary approaches to model the human body.
4. Thoughts: I had no idea about the depth of phase space modeling and how it can be used to essentially model anything about biophysics and physiology. I appreciated the constant theme of considering a multidisciplinary approach to tackle an enormous project. I am excited to learn about not only the development of the organ on a chip project, but also the fundamental principles of thinking outside the box to make an impact on the project.
Shuaipeng Zhang
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B: Tedx Wikswo
0. Knew: The complexity of biological systems in the body, and that humans respond differently to drugs.
1. Learned: The importance of developing homunculi in current research. The different organ chips which have been/are being developed all across the world, including the mammary gland chip and the brain chip. Silo mentality and how it is analogous to the way current drugs are first developed (in petri dishes).
2. Pressing: How complex can the organ chips get? Will they ever match the complexity of a human organ? The silo mentality also brought up concerns with the way modern education is carried out. Should more interdisciplinary classes be taught at an earlier age? E.g. Having biophysics in high school instead of separate biology and physics.
3. Presentation: Speaker prefaced with a discussion of phase space. Talked about how current drugs can adversely affect the human body due to inter-organ interactions. Explained how organ chips can help solve these issues. Went into detail on "silo mentality", supplemented with examples of famous scientists.
4. Thoughts: Organ chips have potential to become the go-to research and diagnose tool. Designing increasingly complex chips will require a greater depth of knowledge and collaboration between people of different disciplines.
James Pino
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1B
0: Knew: the problem and scale of studying humans
1: Learned: Wikswos presentation skills and about his personality.
2:Pressing: What is next? Where is the current bottleneck?
3: Presentation : Enthusiastic.
4: Thoughts: This semester is going to be exciting. I am excited to learn about systems biology and OOC and based on this lecture John is passionate about the topic.
0. Knew: Current problems with drug development platforms, philosophy of Organs-on-a-Chip, the interdisciplinary nature of Organs-on-a-Chip.
ReplyDelete1. Learned: The application of phase space to multidiscipline problems such as OoCs. More details regarding some of the other Organ-on-a-Chip devices, such as the mammary gland on a chip. Some specific flaws of current drug development models.
2. Pressing ?: What challenges will combining multiple Organs-on-Chips into a millihuman create that aren't a concern in single organ models? What properties of microfluidics can be exploited to recreate organ environments?
3. Presentation: An overview of Organs-on-a-Chip covering current problems in drug development, the challenges of creating them, and their potential applications. Covers the potential for Organs-on-a-Chip as building blocks of human microcosms.
4. Thoughts: I think Organs-on-Chips have great potential as medical tool and I'm excited to explore the subject on a deeper level this semester. I am excited to learn the big picture of Organs-on-a-Chip and how to design individual chips as a component of a larger unit.