Symbrachydactyly

For my project, I looked into the hand condition symbrachydactyly. It is a congenital condition where some or all of the fingers are either underdeveloped, or not developed at all. There is no known cause to this condition, but there are several different methods of treatments to improve the function …

Dystonia compared to normal muscle contraction

A muscle contraction begins with a signal from a neurotransmitter from the nervous system. The signal innervates individual muscle fibers and sodium ions are released, depolarizing the entire fiber membrane and its tubules. Once the membrane has been depolarized, calcium ions are released from storage in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The …

The Myelin Sheath of a Nerve Cell in Multiple Sclerosis

With my project I am demonstrating the difference between a healthy and damaged nerve cell that occurs with Multiple Sclerosis. With the healthy model, I am illustrating how the myelin sheath are intact and protecting the axon. There is more space between the myelin in my models to demonstrate the …

Creuztfeldt-Jacob Disease Comic

My project demonstrates how prion disease is contracted and affects the body, using a humourous cartoon. It shows the cascading effects of protein misfolding as it spreads through the body and causes symptoms through changes in the nervous system. It simplifies prion disease to narrate the disease’s onset and development in a cartoon art style. It takes the perspective of prion proteins as an “organization” responsible for activating a zombie-like state through secret operations affecting the body and accomplishing nervous system breakdown as a mission. The comic’s conclusion also demonstrates the popular misunderstandings of the disease in historical and imaginative contexts, showing victims of the disease as “mad” zombies, playing with popular brain-eating zombie portrayals, and connecting them to the actual transmission of CJD or Kuru.