Juan Carlos Torres Sánchez 804-11-9230 BIOL 3095 9/5/2011

Seminar 1 on Stem Cells, Discussing the Seminar Presentation

On September 26 and 27, we had a seminar with Jessian Muñoz, a college graduate

student at New Jersey Medical School. This experience has opened my mind in a new

aspect of science I did not know quite well, the cancer stem cells. How could cancer

stem cells be the primary consequence of brain tumors? That question was well

answered by our seminar person of this week, which was Jessian Muñoz. Due to his

knowledge, we learned about brain tumors, what the starting point is and about a new

topic, the microRNA. The microRNA was discovered in the human genome project,

whichdemonstrates how science discoveries have made lots of great advances in

benefits of health care. Dysfunction in microRNA signaling is present in all cancers

that have been studied thus far.

There was also the discussion about cancer stem cells (CSC). Cancer stem cells are

the cause of brain tumors, the problem that we had before was that with

chemotherapy, the cells that were target were the ones around the cancer stem cells so

the cancer would normally spread again. What they are trying to do is to target with

chemo and radiotherapy cancer stem cells for a better result. They are encountering

problems with this procedure also as cancer stem cells are reappearing after therapy.

Jessian’s lifelong goals changed during the course of his studies, he went from

wanting to be a pedriatitian to studying a PhD. This demonstrates how it doesn’t

matter how long it will takeor if I change my goals, as long as I persevere it will be all

worth it at the end. I recommendthese types of seminars to anyone who wants to get

more knowledge on exciting topics.