Fighting Cancer to Modelling

This past summer, I have been working in a lab that conducts research on cancer. While browsing through the numerous papers I had to read online, I found an interesting article concerning a cancer survivor. Elesha Turner, a 20-year-old student from Hastings, England, was diagnosed with bone cancer last year and made the difficult decision to remove some of the bones in her left leg and replace them with titanium. After her surgery, she was dismayed to see that her leg, with some of the muscles removed, looked abnormally thin. Nevertheless, she started rehabilitation almost immediately in order to recover her ability to walk and move freely.

During rehab, she found an article about Models of Diversity, a company that encourages disabled models to be a part of the modeling industry. After contacting the founder, Elesha will now be an important figure on the company’s disability campaign that intends to change the public’s perception of handicaps. Although she still relies on crutches, she will be able to move around freely with further recovery.

Embracing Disability

Two weeks ago, Ben Mattlin, an op-ed contributor to the New York Times, posted an article describing the ways in which he feels proud about his disability and takes advantage of his condition. Mr. Mattlin has dealt with spinal muscular atrophy ever since he was born. Even from a young age, he learned to use his disability as a means to get ahead in life. He would receive small compliments whenever he was seen on the streets and, even as an adult, he uses his disability to receive discounts and skip ahead in long lines.

He, then, offers a unique definition of disability pride. Rather than striving to be someone who bitterly fights his disease at any cost, Mr. Mattlin believes that handicaps should learn to take advantage of their innate condition. He expresses concern about the fact that many able-bodied people view those with disabilities with sympathy and are unsure how to deal with handicaps. Instead, he would like everyone to accept disabilities as a “fun” aspect of handicaps’ lives. “Play disabled … as you do anything else, because you think its cool.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/opinion/when-wheelchairs-are-cool.html

Scaffolds: A Revolution in Orthopedic Surgery

I have been conducting some research with a professor at the Columbia Medical School of Orthopedics since last summer. Now that a year has passed, I thought that I would share what I’ve been working on.

To start off, orthopedic surgeons now use scaffolds to regenerate missing or damaged parts of bones. They are essentially grafts that allow bone cells to latch on to and proliferate throughout the structure, eventually regenerating bone. Scaffolds come in different shapes and sizes as they are made to fill in the missing parts of the skeleton. Moreover, the sizes of the pores that are scattered throughout the scaffold can be adjusted.

My research focused on finding the optimal size of the pores that would absorb surrounding tissue most quickly. Although I have not come up with a definite number, I found that the smaller the pores, the greater the proliferation rate of the cells in the scaffold.

Although scaffolds may seem like a boring and unimportant field of orthopedic research, its potential in future medicine is enormous. Our current world is an aging society, meaning that the average age of the world is gradually increasing. This phenomenon leads to more cases of osteoporotic disabilities as the years go by.

Since scaffolds can be cheaply produced in any shape through 3-D printing, I believe that further research concerning scaffolds can make it a key treatment method in helping handicap with bone disorders.