June: Breakthroughs in Bacteria

Chances are, if you're reading this, you'll know about DNA, and the 4 bases that are used to make it in very nearly every organism on earth ever: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. So you'll understand what it means when I say that in June 2011 a group of scientists managed to evolve a culture of E.Coli that doesn't use thymine. Or even Uracil. What does this mean in terms of medical progress? To be quite honest, I'm not sure. I suppose it shows the extent to which we can play around with the molecules of living things, which will be integral to medicine in the next century, in my humble opinion. Also in genetics that month, research was published that demonstrated the use of enzymes packaged in virus shells to "repair" the DNA in the liver of haemophilic mice, which reduced the effects. Slightly. Well, watch this space.

Evolution had its fair share of the limelight for a second month running, with yeast having been shown to evolve to a multi-cellular organism in the lab in about 350 generations, selecting for organisms that clumped together using a centrifuge. After 60 days, one of the cultures was forming structures where all the cells were joined together, with the same DNA, working together. These findings shed light on the mysterious leap from single celled organisms to multi-cellular life forms.

In other science: the world's first biological fuel cell is made, 2 elements join the periodic table, worms are found to live in near-anaerobic conditions, type 2 diabetes was reversed in 7 out of 11 patients on a 600 calorie per day diet for 8 weeks, and the war on anti-bitoic resistant bacteria advances.

February: Frankenrats and Flu Vaccines

In a (scary) breakthrough, a ring-shaped brain made out of rat neurons was created in Pittsburgh, in an attempt to study how neural networks manage to store and transmit data as well as they do. Not only did this circle of cells on a protein disc grow to form a network, it was able to store memories - when the brain was subjected to an electric impulse, it mimicked the impulse for another 12 seconds after it had gone. 12 seconds may not sound like a long time to remember something, but for a group of 40-60 neurons in a petri dish, that's impressive.


Closer to home, Dr. Sarah Gilbert of Oxford University led a successful trial of a potentially universal flu vaccine. Instead of making the body produce more of the correct antibody, like most vaccines, her idea was to stimulate the production and activation of T-cells (which destroy infected cells). In the small study that she did, the vaccinated volunteers had more T-cells, and more that were "primed and ready to kill", as she put it. Not a woman to bump into in a dark lab at night. If this can be replicated, it could spell the end for costly, lengthy developments of new vaccines for the seasonal flu each year.


In other science: on my birthday, it was discovered that there are 500 000 000 planets in the milky way alone that are in the 'Goldilocks zone' - not too hot, not too cold, where life could potentially exist. Maybe I'll be treating aliens by the time I graduate!