The Australian Cancer Genome Project

Inherited genetic mutations play a major role in about 5 to 10 percent of all cancers.

Studying various genome-related hypotheses, including their functions in regenerative organ growth, adaptive systems, population adaptation, and the connections between structure, function, and evolution of genomes.

Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.

Cancer is a multi-step disease that can originate from any cell type, but the majority of human cancers are epithelia-derived carcinomas (Yang and Weinberg 2008). The first step in

Pooja Patel Human Genetics 2400 Discussion # 14- Tom March 11, 2015 Survival of the Sickest- Book Review Survival of the Sickest, an intriguing myth buster novel written by Dr. Sharon Moalem, is an outstanding piece of literature for those who are searching for answers about the evolution of health and sicknesses. Moalem successfully demonstrates the influence of evolution, the environment, and human interactions on the health and medicine structure of society. General questions about our everyday health are answered through various series of historical case studies that support ideas about the longevity of illnesses, their causes, and how some have a direct relationship to an evolutionary pathway. Not only does Moalem take a stance historically throughout the novel, but she also keeps the consistent company of historical and modern day science.

Transmissible cancers are rare and only 2 other forms of cancer are known to be transmissible, the canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) and marine bivalve cancer (nature communications). Transmissible cancers act differently to other cancers. This is because transmissible cancers are spread between individuals of a population through direct contact, much like how a disease is spread. Whereas other cancers are caused by a mutation causing uncontrolled cell division resulting in a tumour. DFTD is spread throughout the devils by direct contact, most commonly biting. The cancer is mainly spread during fights for mates, food and land however some are spread during mating itself (pnas). Bites between the devils enable a living cancer cell to be transferred between the individuals therefore colonising another host (UOC). DFTD was found to originate from a female host that carried a mutation in a nerve cell. Once transmitted the cancer cell causes tumours to grow on the face and inside the mouth area of the devil, once they reach a certain size they cause the devil’s to starve to their death due to not being able to eat as a result of the size of the tumour (live science Devilish). DFTD has spread to cover almost all the populations of Tasmania causing the population of Tasmanian devils to drop by 95% since discovering the disease (nature

This illustrates how children develop cancer from different types of carcinogenic and genes, this will be used in the introduction of my essay.

In February 2001, Venter et al., reported on the “penultimate milestone” – the feat of mapping 95% of the euchromatic portion of the human genome (Venter et al., 2001). Multiple discoveries were made in the process of mapping the human genome: the number of genes (fewer than imagined); the percent difference between individuals (less than 0.1%); and new techniques (Polymerase Chain Reaction) (Venter et al., 2001; National Human Genome Research Institute, 2012).

that can play a role in tumor development." These 300 altered genes could or could not change

The source is useful in understanding how cancer can pass down generation after generation with it fast, pervasive, and deadly movement. This article

Cancer has been one of the biggest killers in the world for the past 100 years. Previously, before science advanced to the point that it’s at today; no one really understand where cancer came from or why it would suddenly generate inside a human’s body. But, since finding out the reasons behind all of the hundreds of different cancers, there’s almost always a cause/health defect.

When asked about mutations, common answers could be “it could be genetic” or “something probably went wrong during the gestational period” but do people really know the underlying truth about mutations? For example, not much is known about the white eyed phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster. Understanding how the white eyed phenotype is inherited in these flies could allow other scientists/researchers to be closer in solving genetical problems in humans. This study attempts to understand how the white eyed phenotype is inherited and which its mode of inheritance might be; whether it’s sex-linked (dominant or recessive), autosomal (dominant or recessive), incomplete or complete dominance.

“The Emperor of All Maladies” captured the whole essence of cancer. This book gave a very good narrative of the historical record of cancer, the scientists and important public figures who contributed to the fight against a disease that has so much caused despair, pain, disfiguring of the body and worst of all, death. Cancer is seen as the abnormal growth of cells. A normal cell becomes cancerous when there is a defect in the regulation of its growth. Cancerous cells also tend to be elusive and resistant to treatments. Numerous attempts have been channeled into demystifying the nature of cancer. Some of these attempts proved abortive while a few served as a harbinger of hope. Cancer have proved to be part of our genetic makeup, hence, total eradication of it remains a future accomplishment.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide as it can develop in almost any organ or tissue. Significant advances in understanding the cellular basis of cancer and the underlying biological mechanisms of tumour has been vastly improved in the recent years (Jiang et al. 1994). Cancer is a genetic disease which requires a series of mutation during mitosis to develop, its characteristics can be associated with their ability to grow and divide abnormal cells uncontrollable while in the mean time invade and cause nearby blood vessels to serve its need. Even though many people are affected by cancer today, the abilities which cancer cells have make it hard to find a single effective treatment for cancer. The focus of research now lies

Immunology basically involves understanding the immune system and how it responds to various disease conditions. the immune system consists of a number of components. Traditionally, it is divided into humoral and cellular immune responses. It can also be distinguished into innate and adaptive immunity. The innate immunity can discriminate between normal tissues , self and newly encountered non-self-proteins while the adaptive immunity is the more complex system aimed at the eradication of intracellular pathogens. To do this, antigen derived from such pathogens that are often new to the host organism, need to be recognised by receptor-bearing specialised immune cells which respond to a complex system of stimulatory and costimulatory signals. Better understanding of the human immune system has led to the identification of a number of tumor-associated antigens in the 1980s and the development of various immunotherapeutic approaches. In recent years, identification of the specific antigenic MHC class I epitopes, advancements in genetic engineering, gene delivery, and cell-based therapeutic approaches allowed development of the novel immunotherapeutics.