Science Songs #3: Jon Hopkins

"How do NK cells know not to kill RBCs?"

I was recently asked about the surveillance system present within immunity which operates to kill virally infected cells by lack of MHC expression, and why this same system doesn't destroy red blood cells (RBC), which lack MHC. One function of Natural Killer (NK) cells is to destroy cells infected by viruses, which have a mechanism of evading T-cell killing by down-regulating MHC class I expression. MHC class I molecules are expressed on every cell in the body apart from RBCs; a lack of expression is detected by NK cells which act to destroy the cell. However, RBC remain unharmed. SEM of NK cells Red Blood Cells V.S Like everyone else I assumed the almighty google would provide me with the answer to my friends question, so I typed in my query and the only relevant link was to a 'yahoo answers' page, which answered a succinctly phrased question whi...

Science Songs #4 - Resynthesis 3D, Max Cooper

Max Cooper has created numerous tracks inspired by biology, pulling on his own PhD background to hone his electronic sound. His tracks always clicks with me. There's a connection with biology in his composition that reminds me of symmetries and fractals occurring in nature. This track in particular has a confident, precise sound with a baseline that grows and changes unnoticeably, in juxtaposition to the major transformations taking place in the treble... Similar to a growing organism under close examination. Congrats to Kevin McGloughlin for producing a video to match the sounds! 👏

Measles Virus and B-cell memory

The re-emergence of diseases that were thought to be part of our history, defeated by immunisation, and hoped to be found only in category 4 labs deep underground and textbooks, are now increasingly common in headlines covering new epidemics. Of current popular concern is Measles, the virus not to be confused with German Measles nor Rubella, which prior to a vaccintation program beginning in 1963, killed 2.6M people annually [1]. In 2018 more than 140,000 people died from the virus [1], an incredible decrease since the 1960s but this number has been increasing. Image: Measles Virus Micrograph The reason for the rise in measles cases is not only because of the recent fall-off in immunisation program uptake, thanks to baseless claims linking autism with the combination vaccine, MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella), but also because of the virulence of the virus. Measles is the most infectious virus known to the human race, and before vaccination programs were in effect, infect...

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