A Unique Look

As GenNeo wraps up, I feel like I should make some kind of post that shows it actually even happened (other than Things I Like More Than GenNeo). While we have learned a lot of interesting things (and believe me, some things that were just not interesting at all), what I'm about to post really stuck with me as an interesting representation of just how much cancer can flat out screw your body up.

The typical person's genetic makeup consists of two copies of 23 chromosomes (one from each parent). Mishaps can occur on a large scale such as Down Syndrome (or Trisomy 21), where a person has an extra chromosome, or on a very small scale such as Sickle Cell Disease, where a single piece of your DNA (a nucleotide- the ATCGs) is inserted wrong (this is called a point mutation).

A karyotype provides a quick way to look at a person's genes to see big large-scale changes. It's really just a picture of each chromosome from a person's cell lined up in their respective pairs. A karyotype looks like this:
The chromosomes look very similar and seem pretty neat and orderly. If examined, we can see that this person was a male, we'll call him Clark, because there is a single X chromosome with a Y chromosome (a woman would have two X chromosomes). Clark inveitably has mutations. We all have tons of them that simply don't cause problems (silent mutations). It's possible that Clark even has cancer or some other ailment, it just apparently isn't affecting his genes on such a scale that looking at a karyotype can discern it.

So what kind of destruction can cancer rain down upon your harmless little nuclei, the keepers of your genes? BAM!
This karyotype was taken from the cancer cell of a person with lung cancer. Look at all that! Who even knows where to begin?

My diagnosis (or Dx)? Not good things.
My treatment? Uh... Quit smoking.

Until next time.