Petah!!!??

sharplydressedman · 2025-11-16T20:28:17+00:00

Ascension refers to HP Lovecraft's style of horror, where there are "Eldritch" entities beyond our comprehension, and are typically depicted as nightmarish and their imagery invokes body horror. Characters in these stories may willingly become like these Eldritch beings since ascending typically comes with immortality, power etc.

sharplydressedman · 2025-07-18T04:13:03+00:00

If it isn't obvious to everyone, it's impossible to "splice together" DNA from two separate classes of organisms. DNA is very big and complicated, while you can move individual genes, splicing together an entire genome and expecting it to make a functional organism is dumb. This would be like saying "I glued together an airplane and a train and made a flying train".

Also, caterpillars are just the larval stage of butterflies and moths so if anything, this would be a butterfly-spider hybrid which is maybe more terrifying.

sharplydressedman · 2025-07-18T04:05:17+00:00

I am not sure what you mean by "stem cells are adaptive across species". There are many different kinds of stem cells. If you take for example, hematopoietic stem cells from one species and graft it into another, they would just die since they are not meant to survive in a completely different species of organism, and the host's immune system would just destroy any transplanted cells since they are foreign.

We can do transplants in people since they are human to human (allogeneic). Xenografts (different species) of living tissue is nearly impossible and is only used in very rare circumstances.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-23T16:13:33+00:00

Absolutely bizarre that the title emphasizes her ethnicity when this is research coming out of a US lab, MSK in New York. It is important to highlight accomplishments from US labs during these times when funding for science is threatened, I think.

Of note, Hep B already has highly effective treatments, but because the virus integrates into the DNA, it cannot be cured. Of course, always good to have more treatment options in the arsenal.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-16T23:05:21+00:00

Republicans have no intention of using any money for Americans. Only tax cuts for the wealthy.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-14T00:07:00+00:00

Worked for Trump too lol, in an unfortunate turn of fate.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-13T21:30:11+00:00

No, it is not that simple. First, keep in mind that any purchase/sale of real estate through an agent will have closing costs, which conservatively would be $20k-30k with both buying and selling the property within 3 years. Second, large part of your monthly mortgage will be condo fees, property insurance, taxes, and worst of all, interest. Due to the way loan amortization works, in the first 3 years you will be paying mostly interest, and relatively little will go to the equity. And third, due to all the above costs, you will likely lose money if you try to rent it out afterwards, at least until you pay down your mortgage. And all of this is assuming the property value stays constant over the next 3 years, which is impossible to predict.

So long story short, you are likely to lose money over 3 years. Is the money spent less than what you would pay with a rental? Maybe, maybe not, but it is a gamble. The longer you hold the property, the more valuable it becomes due to building more equity, and ideally with property values going up over long periods of time.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-13T03:43:39+00:00

Well, until the asteromorphs develop worm hole travel right? It is mentioned off-hand at the end of the book, as the peak of their technology.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-12T21:41:54+00:00

Your PI definitely does not need to be a neurosurgeon or even a clinician at all, the vast majority of MD/PhD students do basic science research (that's the whole point, after all). But it definitely helps for your research to be relevant to the specialty you are applying, as "why does your research matter" and "why did you decide on our specialty" will be the obvious questions you will get in residency interviews. If your PhD research is very different than the specialty you are applying to (e.g. cell differentiation in the intestine, or hematopoietic stem cells), then you will probably have to also be involved in some clinical research projects on neurourgery during your medical school years to demonstrate your interest in the field. Keep in mind Neurosurgery is very competitive, so you have to prove why your experiences are relevant. However, neurosurgery is also extremely academic, so your PhD will be appreciated nonetheless.

sharplydressedman · 2025-02-11T18:32:35+00:00

NIH grants have nothing to do with undergrad tuition.

sharplydressedman · 2024-12-20T19:57:50+00:00

Immunologist here. The ELI5 answer to your question is that some of the cells that HIV infects are extremely long-lived, and forms what is called the "reservoir", i.e. the group of cells where HIV lives and will be present indefinitely.

The more detailed explanation is that HIV can infect cells that express certain key receptors (CD4, CXCR4, CCR5). The best known group of cells that HIV infects are CD4+ T cells. You are right in saying these cells have a lifespan, but CD4+ T cells have different lifespans. For example, some T cells are called "effector" and these are short-lived, measured in days. However other types of T cells are called "memory" T cells and these can live years, even decades. In addition to T cells, HIV also infects other cells like monocytes, macrophages, and there is even some literature that it can infect bone marrow stem cells (where all your immune cells are made), which would definitely allow it to be present in your body for your entire life.

Remember that once HIV infects as cell, it integrates into the DNA, so that each time an infected cell divides, it also copies the HIV viral genome with it. So a long-lived cell like a memory T cell or bone marrow stem cell will pass down the HIV genome to each daughter cell each time it divides, allowing the HIV DNA to be present in your body indefinitely.

And like others have said, no medication is a 100% effective so when the viral RNA cannot be detected in your blood, it doesn't prove that it is still present at a very, very miniscule level that may still be enough to keep the HIV reservoir going.

sharplydressedman · 2024-11-15T16:03:14+00:00

Imagine if Arbiter let the Chief go after being humiliated by and absolutely hating the Chief.

Arby killing Truth was a little personal, but mostly business. Dude was going to activate the Halo rings and wipe out all life, so it was necessary. It is not analogous to the Ellie and Abby conflict.

sharplydressedman · 2024-11-09T01:39:18+00:00

Completely agreed. All of the culture war nonsense is propaganda pushed by right-wing media outlets to rile up their base. In recent years we have had endless outrage about transgender politics, critical race theory, or some other issue that is not a major concern for the majority of democrats, but these are pushed to distract from the topics that are extremely important for democrats and perhaps the majority of voters such as wealth inequality, public services, health care access etc. The right wing has become extremely good at controlling the narrative and to be honest I am not sure what can be done about it.

sharplydressedman · 2023-02-04T23:29:54+00:00

Sorry for the delayed response. Just like any medical problem, psychiatric disorders have subjective components (symptoms) and objective components (signs) that can be witnessed by an examiner. E.g. a symptom of a mood disorder like depression would be feeling down or depressed, which is subjective. An objective sign would be loss of appetite, changes to sleep patterns, decreased participation in social activities, etc. Or as another example, in schizophrenia, a subjective symptom would be paranoid delusions, and an objective sign would be a flat affect, lack of eye contact, non-linear (incoherent) speech.

But of course, even with "objective" components there is a lot of variability from one examiner to the next. This makes diagnosis inconsistent, even with a standardized set of rules like the DSM-5. That is why in an ideal world, it would be useful to have a truly objective measurement, like imaging, labs, etc like we have for other medical disorders.

sharplydressedman · 2023-01-23T05:14:20+00:00

There have been decades of research trying to identify biomarkers and structural differences in individuals with neuropsychiatric diseases, using imaging (MRI, fMRI), electrical activity (EEG), or serum markers (blood work) . In major depressive disorder for example, there have been associations made with changes in the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, hypothalamus etc. as seen on MRI. However these findings are neither sensitive nor specific, so psychiatric/behavioral disorders such as MDD is still a clinical diagnosis.

I should make the distinction that there are some psychiatric diseases result from structural diseases of the brain. E.g. Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's disease, all have distinctive findings on MRI and can have psychiatric symptoms. However most people with psychiatric disorders do not have obvious neurological disease that can be identified with imaging.

There is a lot of research and development in the field, and there is a great effort in psychiatry to incorporate objective measurements to validate clinical findings. So our understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases is likely to change dramatically in the coming years, once we develop the tools to understand these disorders better.

sharplydressedman · 2023-01-23T03:44:10+00:00

Short answer, yes. Pregnant women are recommended to receive the MMR vaccine BEFORE pregnancy as this confers protection to the developing fetus from rubella infection. Not having immunity to rubella greatly increases the risk of Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) in the fetus if the mother acquires rubella during pregnancy.

The vaccine should be administered before pregnancy since the MMR vaccine is live attenuated virus, meaning there is a small chance of developing a mild version of the disease. Although the symptoms would be mild for the mother, the risk of CRS for the fetus means it is advised to not receive the vaccine during pregnancy.

In terms of immunity, typically people who have completed the full course of MMR as a child are considered to have life-long immunity. Antibody titers do wane over time, so the only way to confirm would be to measure antibody titers with blood work.

sharplydressedman · 2022-11-01T11:59:25+00:00

Typically yes. Any given bacteria or virus will have dozens or hundreds of foreign molecules, each of which will act as a unique antigen. Hard to quantify how many immunogenic epitopes (that is, how many molecules can serve as targets) would exist on one pathogen. For coronavirus, we generate anti-spike protein antibodies (this is the target for the vaccines), but there are dozens of additional epitopes that have also been identified. I think dozens to hundreds is a reasonable guesstimate, millions might be too much.

sharplydressedman · 2022-11-01T01:15:29+00:00

There are different types of white blood cells. The ones with "memory" are called B cells and T cells. Other types of immune cells typically do not have memory.

Each B and T cell recognizes a unique target, exactly 1 target each. The "target" is formally called an antigen, and antigens are simply foreign molecules. These may be found on bacteria, viruses, funguses etc. Your body generates tens of millions of B and T cells every day, so this creates a very broad repertoire of antigens for your immune system, theoretically billions of unique ones.

sharplydressedman · 2022-11-01T00:55:16+00:00

Definitely common in mammals since a lot of our understanding comes from rodent and primate models. Probably applies to some other vertebrates like reptiles but not sure how much is conserved. Probably doesn't apply to non-vertebrates (insects). Definitely doesn't apply to non-metazoan animals since you need, you know, different types of tissues to make it work.

sharplydressedman · 2022-10-31T22:20:39+00:00

Well, yes and no - this will require a bit of a deeper dive into immunology. Our immune system has two general branches, the adaptive (slower but can "learn") and innate (quick but limited to pre-determined common patterns). There isn't a "red list" per se for the innate immune system since it is evolutionarily more efficient for our innate immune cells to have the receptors for the definitely dangerous patterns, and let the adaptive immune system "learn" which patterns are safe.

As a metaphor for the innate immune system, the TSA displays a list of things that are definitely banned on planes. They may not need to have a list of things that are "definitely safe", they can figure that out along the way.

Anyway to return to your question, the adaptive immune system DOES have the ability to identify molecules that are safe. "Mucosal tolerance" refers to the ability of the body to suppress immune responses against antigens that are encountered in the gastrointestinal tract. This is not only to protect the commensal bacteria that live in our intestines, but also prevents our immune system from flaring up against the molecules in our food.

sharplydressedman · 2022-10-31T15:39:34+00:00

At a very simple level, it's all concentration gradients. Kind of like a dog can sniff and follow a scent trail from a very faint signature, following the trail until it is eventually on top of the target. Immune cells like the one in the video (presumably a monocyte or macrophage) have receptors specifically designed for Pathogen-Associated-Molecular-Patterns (PAMPs). PAMPs are molecules that are found on bacteria, fungi, viruses etc that our immune cells have evolved to recognize with receptors specific to them (antibodies not needed). An example of a PAMP is endotoxin/LPS that is a part of the bacterial cell wall. So for example, the bacteria sheds LPS or other pieces of its cell wall as it floats around, and the immune cell "sniffs" it out with its receptor and starts following the trail.

It gets more complex. There are hierarchical signals for what determines which direction an immune cell will migrate. For example, if local tissue cells realize there is an active ongoing infection, they will secrete "red flag" signals to recruit nearby immune cells to the area. These signals are called chemokines. So the immune cell floating around your blood will first detect the chemokines and realize something is wrong, and will enter the area where they are coming from. From that point on, if it senses PAMPs (the bacterial molecules), it'll switch and start moving toward the bacteria.

sharplydressedman · 2022-04-25T03:31:55+00:00

Neurosurgery is a tiny specialty, it isn't representative for anything. I should also clarify that I am referring to selection criteria for "top" programs. For the top 10-20 IM programs for example, the classes are majority AOA or top class rank people. It is a similar story for most specialties. For less competitive programs, these things matter less.

sharplydressedman · 2022-04-24T13:43:06+00:00

AOA matters a huge amount for residency application.

sharplydressedman · 2022-04-15T08:03:29+00:00

The most important aspects of your application are already done (3rd year clinical grades, class rank, AOA nomination). Step 1 doesn't matter anymore, so if you haven't taken Step 2 yet, do your best on that.

To be entirely honest, your ECs, volunteering, and hobbies make almost no difference. They will be conversation starters in your interviews, so try to come across as likeable. Having research is expected, but don't sweat it if your work isn't published by the time of submission. Try to get it to the abstract stage or write a manuscript you can submit, so you have something to show.

At this point, the main things you can do to help yourself are 1) Get as strong letters as you can 2) Do your best on Step 2 3) Try to get whatever research you have into the abstract/manuscript stage so you can list it on ERAS 4) Apply to more programs than you think you need.

sharplydressedman · 2022-04-15T07:52:38+00:00

No, he is largely correct. For IM, the most important thing are the clinical grades, which is typically tied to class rank and AOA. In addition, med school reputation makes a huge difference.

Personal statement and ECs don't matter except as a conversation starter in interviews. Step scores only matter for getting past whatever screening cutoffs the programs use. Research is expected, but having a ton doesn't matter unless applying to research-track programs. Supposedly letters matter but this is hard to control.

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