An explanation of PD-1 blockade and its applications for cancer immunotherapy — In 2018, Professors J.P. Allison and T. Honjo were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy, engineering the immune system such that it targets cancer cells more aggressively. Despite scientists having invested more than a hundred years in researching cancer treatments, it nonetheless…

It’s a sign that your immune system is properly functioning — Side effects are a natural part of vaccination. Some individuals have reported feeling more significant side effects from their second shot compared to their first, and the reason behind it can easily be explained using science. The fundamental principle of vaccinations is to stimulate and train the immune system in…

A step-by-step guide on tackling coding Pac-Man from scratch despite never having programmed a game before — There is no better way to learn Object Oriented Programming in Java than to code a game. It teaches you how to create classes and the importance of the abstraction of code to reduce redundancy. You learn how to structure a large application and the importance of making testcases. …

Plankton form the bedrock of the marine food web but their existence and that of the entire marine food web is threatened by the oceans becoming more acidic — “Everyone bangs on about rising sea levels but the real challenge of a warming planet is ocean acidification. An acid ocean spells the end of life on earth.” — Tim Winton The first time I learnt about ocean acidification was from my high school chemistry teacher. In a few short…

An explanation of CAR-T Cell immunotherapy and the mechanisms by which it treats cancer — In 2015, Scott McIntyre was given four months to live. The diagnosis was obvious: a malignant B-cell lymphoma that had spread to the lungs. His doctors had tried everything — several rounds of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and targeted radiation therapy, but the cancer kept coming back. His doctors…

An explanation of the mechanisms behind how the CCR5 delta32 mutation confers immunity to HIV/AIDS and why scientists are so interested in it — In 2018, two twin girls were born to the world, Lulu and Nana. The pregnancy had been normal, except for one important detail. This was a world first in performing gene surgery, manually changing the twins’ DNA such that they would have a specific “delta32” mutation within the CCR5 gene…