Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao Introduction For cancer to successfully grow, one of the major obstacles it must face is the immune system. Cells of the immune system, such as T cells, have natural and effective mechanisms that allow them to monitor the body and attack any cancer cell that might arise. For decades,... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao Cancer is a debilitating disease in more ways than one. Its devastation arises predominantly from its parasitic nature, siphoning the host body's nutrients and space for tumor growth. Predictably, this leaves victims feeling tired and worn down, with muscle weakness and malnutrition. Altogether, this cancer-associated weakening and wasting is known... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, 1 in 8 women will have breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2024, an estimated 300,000 women and nearly 3000 men were diagnosed with breast cancer.1,2 In many cases, breast cancer can be attributed to two genes ‒ BRCA1 and BRCA2 (collectively... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 6 minutes Anthony Tao Smallpox was once a devastating disease, speculated to have incited numerous plagues throughout history including the Plague of Athens in 430 BC and the epidemic that decimated the Aztec population of the once great city of Tenochtitlan in 1520. In the 18th century, 400,000 deaths a year were attributed... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Anthony Tao Sunny weather can make the difference between a bleak and mundane work day versus a day filled with joy and festivity. People generally feel better when the sun's out. Foods taste better, music sounds livelier, and the air feels more hopeful. And the need for hope is perhaps most... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao The modern computer has become a powerful part of society's infrastructure. Among millions of other things, computers are critical for facilitating financial services, research, communications, and politics. However, we can all perhaps agree that one of their LEAST important functions is the ability to recognize cats. However, in 2012,... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao The science of the brain has made strides since the 17th century when French philosopher Renes Descartes postulated that nerves communicate by pushing air through tiny tubes. Over a century later, it was biologist Luigi Galvani who, by electrocuting frogs, suggested that neurons talk not through air, but through... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 6 minutes Anthony Tao Bacteria are not often given the respect they sometimes deserve. People tend to consider them as foreign harbingers of plagues, colds, and rashes ‒ unwanted invaders that our immune systems are uniquely tasked to deport. Of course, it is very well accepted now that many of these microbes indeed... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao It goes without saying that magnets have uses beyond simply pinning wedding RSVPs to your refrigerator. In medicine, magnetism is a crucial component of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an invaluable diagnostic tool for clinicians. An MRI subjects the human body to an enormous magnetic field ‒ perhaps a thousand-fold... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao In a world polarized by ethnopolitical tensions, we may be comforted to think of science as a stonewall against ethnic and social biases ‒ to imagine that scientific data speaks with an impartial voice. However, this is far from the case. The history of modern science is plagued with... Continue Reading →
Reading time: 4 minutes Anthony (Tony) Tao Controlling the genes encoded by our DNA has always been a dream in oncology. Just as our healthy cells rely on genes to properly function, cancer cells depend on our genes to thrive and parasitize our bodies. In the late 90s, a powerful technology was developed called RNA... Continue Reading →
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