Endometriosis – by Soquel Keelean and AmberLynn Romero

We did our STEAM project on endometriosis, a disease that affects about 10% of reproductive aged women, that is characterized by the growth of endometrium-like tissue outside of the uterine cavity on areas like the ovaries, the fallopian tube, and the peritoneum. While is is benign, it is associated with …

Five Major Classes of Antibodies

My STEAM project is about the five major classes of Antibodies or immunoglobulins called IgM, IgA, IgD, IgG, and IgE. Though they are found throughout the body’s secretions they produced by effector B cells and are secreted by Plasma cells. Though some Antibodies vary in size and structure they each have the minimum characteristics of antibody monomers (four protein chains bound by disulfide chains), the lightest of which forms the antigen binding site. The heavy monomers (high molecular weight) contain variable and constant regions, the constant region means that the amino acids are the same throughout the classes of Antibodies, the variable region is unique for every Antibody. Antigens bind at the ends of each Antibody structure at the variable regions where it forms a y-shape. The other end of the Antibody binds to B-cells, phagocytes, mast cells, or simply float free in the plasma depending on which Antibody it is.I couldn’t figure out how to post multiple pictures so please go to the link to view the paintings. –Antibodies in Waterco

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Playdoh Model for Antigen Presenting Pathway and Immunodominance

Antigen-presenting cells (APC) are key players in initiating the adaptive immune response. However, much is still unknown about how a specific peptide fragment from the entire protein is chosen to be presented since some sections induce stronger immune responses than others. Understanding this mechanism would be vital information for vaccine …

UTI

My project is on urinary tract infection. Three types of infection occur within the urinary tract, urethra, bladder, and kidney. the green dots on the clay model respersent where the bacteria sits when it travels. each part of the infection in the urinary tract has its own set of symptoms. …

Breast Changes During Pregnancy

I made my project into a video like I did last semester, because I thought it was a unique and simplistic visual aid that everyone can watch and receive the message almost instantly. I hope that this style is okay with everyone; as making movies is actually a passion of mine and I am not very good at hands on crafts and art projects. My project is on the changes that occur during pregnancy, specifically to the breasts of a female’s body as it undergoes the changes necessary to facilitate the growth of life. I made a time-lapse video of myself sketching the breasts before pregnancy and breasts during pregnancy. Many changes take place during pregnancy, and a lot of changes actually take place in the breasts themselves. In my exterior sketch, you can see that the breasts become fuller and this is because the female body begins the production of milk when they start growing a child inside of their uterus. You can also see that purple stretchmarks appear as the breasts grow bigger, and these are due to the stretching of skin as they expand. Another important exterior change Is that the areolas and nipples increase in size and sometimes become darker due to increased blood flow to the breasts. These exterior changes are the ones that we hear about the most because they are the changes that we can actually see when we examine them, but there are also many important changes occurring on the inside as well. An increase in estrogen levels allows extra growth of milk ducts and glandular buds that help to produce the milk that the mother will eventually feed her baby with. Other hormones that play significant roles in milk production are human placental lactogen, luteinizing hormone, and oxytocin. As the breasts swell making room for milk storage, the milk ducts extend and elongate in order to accommodate this change. I really enjoyed learning about all of the changes that occur during pregnancy, as someone that would like to be a mom one day, I was interested in how my body will change throughout my pregnancy. I think that pregnancy is such an interesting topic and the reproductive system was one of my very favorite units from this entire class. I think it is very important to recognize all of the changes that a woman’s body goes through in order to bring life into the world, and I think it makes the whole birth process even more incredible and miraculous. Our bodies work hard to keep us alive and well throughout our entire lives, and when a woman becomes pregnant her body not only takes care of itself, but takes care of another life as well and that is something that I find absolutely amazing. The human body is incredible and I just wanted to say how grateful I am to have been a part of such a great class full of great people these last two semesters! Learning about the human body has been an amazing experience that I will not soon forget! Thanks for a great semester, you guys and have a wonderful summer!

 

All my best,

Miranda Lally

Citations:

 

Breast Changes During Pregnancy. (2019, November 8). Retrieved from https://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-health/breast-changes-during-pregnancy/

 

PATUREL, A., & KOKSHANIAN, R. (2011). the whole 9 months.  Fit Pregnancy,  18(1), 90—96.

 

Stanford Children’s Health. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=normal-breast-development-and-changes-85-P00151

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