Sean Chin » Science & Medicine

A Light switch for Neurons (TED Talk)

Sean Chin — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:30:29 +0000

Acinetobacter Baumannii

Sean Chin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:29:03 +0000

This is what I researched at UOIT previously.

Craig Venter @ TEDMED 2009

Sean Chin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:12:20 +0000

UOIT + IBM + SickKids = Innovation + Collaboration + Inspiration

Sean Chin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:17:21 +0000

“Groundbreaking work aims to help medical profession detect potential life-saving changes”

This is the First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) program, which is being developed by IBM, The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Carolyn McGregor (UOIT), who is a Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics, is collaborating with doctors at Sickkids and researchers at IBM to create a “system” that will allow doctors to make sense of the enormous amounts of vital data from ill premature babies.

“This first-of-a-kind research project, known as Artemis, is helping ‘make sense’ of the constant stream of data collected from critically ill premature babies so that doctors will be able to recognize the subtle changes that can reliably predict a deterioration in condition and allow them to intervene more quickly. Using IBM InfoSphere Stream software to help manage the stream of biomedical data, such as heart rate and respiration, the software analyzes environmental data gathered from advanced sensors and more traditional monitoring equipment on and around the babies.”

1. First-of-a-kind research at UOIT drawing international attention

2. UOIT professor receives prestigious international award from IBM

All the best, Sean

Two interesting articles…

Sean Chin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:11:49 +0000

In this first article, researchers claim that we may not be exactly what we thought we may be. We all already know that mitochonria, the “power house” of our cells were once completely separate from humans millions of years ago. Well this research is now showing that the human genome is part bornavirus as well.

“Bornaviruses, a type of RNA virus that causes disease in horses and sheep, can insert their genetic material into human DNA and first did so at least 40 million years ago, the study shows. The findings, published January 7 in Nature, provide the first evidence that RNA viruses other than retroviruses (such as HIV) can stably integrate genes into host DNA. The new work may help reveal more about the evolution of RNA viruses as well as their mammalian hosts.”

In this second article, scientists have found that Prions, which are defined by NCBI as “Prions are unprecedented infectious pathogens that cause a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative diseases by an entirely novel mechanism.” Not to mention incredibly hard to kill, may not even require DNA to continue to evolve into even more deadly forms.

“…Researchers document these lifeless structures evolving, despite the fact that they lack any DNA or RNA.”