Femke van Hout The last decade marks the exciting revolution of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. While the revolution still continues with further development and refinement of the Cas9 systems, the first patients are already receiving Cas9-based treatments. The Cas9 enzyme is a so-called “RNA-guided DNA nuclease”. This means that Cas9 is directed by RNA, the guide RNA, to find and cut the complementary target DNA. As this cutting mechanism is very precise and programmable, Cas9 can in theory be … [Read more...]
Treatment of COVID-19: where are we at the moment?
Quentin Marsman 2020 is the year of COVID-19. The disease caused by the new coronavirus has been a major health concern in the first months of this year and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March [1]. The disease has led to lockdowns in multiple countries as a means to limit the spread of the virus. To touch upon the severity of the disease: on the 26th of May there were over 5.406.282 confirmed cases and 343.562 confirmed deaths [2]. In this brief message, … [Read more...]
Male contraception: a new alternative for couples?
Jelmer Raaijmakers We think it is self-evident that women make sure that they do not get pregnant, but is that a rational way of thinking? We might have been conditioned to think in that manner. It could be because women get pregnant, women give birth, and women use contraceptives. However, is it not weird and illogical to think of it that way? Might men be able to play a role in this? Women carry the burden of carrying the (unborn) child; there is nothing we can do to change that. … [Read more...]
Why mass media is captivated by coronavirus
Larissa Govers, BSc Not a day goes by that you are not confronted with coronavirus, albeit on the news, as a joke or because you got an email about it from your employer. The world is currently completely captivated by this disease, which shows symptoms such as cough, dyspnea fever and bilateral lung infiltrates [1]. But here I wonder, why does a flu-like disease have the ability to affect the global economic growth, while other diseases with significantly higher burdens get by unnoticed? For … [Read more...]
Is blinding not so important after all?
Larissa Govers, BSc When you want to study the effect of a therapeutic intervention, randomisation is the most reliable method to assess the real effect of the intervention. Randomisation is the process of assigning participants or experimental units to a certain treatment in a way that every unit has a known (equal) chance of being assigned to any of the groups. However, the results from these studies could still be biased due to systematic differences. Already from early on in our … [Read more...]
Pathological Laughing and Crying
Elisah Geertman If you have seen the movie ‘Joker’ in theatres, there is a big chance you will recognise the card as the one carried around by the film’s main character, Arthur Fleck (better known as The Joker), who suffers from a variety of mental illnesses. One of his conditions causes him to have involuntary and extreme outbursts of (horrifying) laughter at the most inappropriate moments. But what is the real-life condition behind the Joker’s laugh? The outbursts of laughter displayed … [Read more...]
ENABLE
Mariam Baghdady On November 13 - 15, nearly 300 scientists from all over Europe came together in Nijmegen to share new ideas and innovative approaches in life sciences. The symposium is organised annually by the ENABLE initiative: the European Academy for Biomedical Science. This year, the programme was filled with short talks and post presentations. PhD students from various fields of life sciences shared personal experiences and increased their knowledge. As the editorial board of RAMS we … [Read more...]
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