Tejas

Hi I'm Tejas. I live in Needham, MA. My hobbies are reading, music, and tennis. My favorite subjects in school are science and math. I have been interested in genetics since fifth grade when I went to a JHU CTY camp on DNA. The reason I like genetics is that it offers natural solutions to most issues that humans face- deforestation, disease, aging, etc. Another reason I like genetics because there is always something new in this field of science. It also shows how much we dont know. I think something that I would enjoy doing is gene therapy on a larger scale.

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 There are 3 major types of UV light, UVA, and UVB, and UVC. UVA is detectable by cells and is just above the visible spectrum. This type of radiation does not cause cancer as often. UVB has a shorter wavelength, is can damage cells, and is really hard to detect. This is the most common type of UV radiation and therefore is the most common cause of cancer. UVC is rarer, has a much shorter wavelength, and is germicidal. It is not a large cause of skin cancer since it is not too common, but it can destroy cells that come in contact with it really fast.


 * **Name+ Abbreviation ** || **Wavelength ** ||
 * Ultraviolet A / UVA || 400-315 nm ||
 * Ultraviolet B / UVB || 315-280 nm ||
 * Ultraviolet C / UVC || 280-100 nm ||

 When there is no UV rays, people with lighter skin have at most a miniscule amount of melanin. Photosensors on cells in the lower epidermis sense UVA and tell melanosomes to produce melanin. They produce melanin, which surrounds the nucleus and protects it from radiation, but while the melanin accumulates, there is always a chance that DNA could get mutated. But there is one issue to this system: the photosensors cannot detect the more harmful UVB and UVC as well. Because of this, if there is a lot of UVB and UVC light present but not a lot of UVA, melanin may not build up, causing major health issues.



 People with darker skin have a large amount of melanin production anyway. Because of that, even if there is UVB and UVC radiation, the cell won't be as affected. If it sees UVA, it will release melanin like normal. This is a much better defense against ultraviolet radiation. As UVB and UVC hit the cell’s photosensors, they don’t respond, but when it tries to pass through the nucleus, the melanin prevents it. When UVA radiation hits the cell’s photosensors, it acts like a normal cell, only more prepared.



So one solution to the skin cancer is to increase the number of melanosomes (melanin producing organelles), and their activity. But the melanin still lets in 5% of the UV radiation, at least. This means 175,000 people will still get skin cancer each year.

The Gene that controls it is called the Ocular Albinism type 1 gene (OA1), and it controls the production in two places. It controls the number of melanosomes produced and the melanosomes’ activity. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The gene should be altered to produce twice the amount of melanosome before stopping, and telling the melanosomes to produce more.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The spores of certain types of Bacillus bacteria (such as anthrax) can survive up to UVC radiation. If bacillus bacteria on your skin are given DNA instructions to form dormant spores that don’t respond to growing conditions, you could give yourself a transparent ultraviolet protector. The disadvantage of this is that if the spores are kept dormant, there won’t be more bacteria, and spore production will stop.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">No one really understands how the genes for this work, other than that fact that it works. The idea behind it is it surrounds the DNA with stuff to absorb the radiation.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The bacterial spores block most of the UV rays, and the melanin in cells would deal with UV that passes by the spores. The issue with this is that if the bacterial spores don’t grow, the bacteria producing the spores will die out, and then the spore production stops. So instead, they should be instructed just to find the cold months good for growing.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> When the sunlight hits the bacteria directly, with a lot of UV radiation (such as summer), the bacteria spores will stop growing. When the sunlight does not hit the bacteria directly, with a lot less UV radiation (winter), the spores will grow into bacteria.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Since the bacteria spores need to grow sometime, the winter is best for them, with 30-60% less UV radiation. But then you are defenseless against the other 40% (unless you naturally have dark skin). This is why you need both. One as your summer defense, one as your winter defense.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There are a few issues to this design. This method of ultraviolet protection would be costly. There isn’t a way to produce the right kind of bacillus that is safe for us (most of the workable bacteria are anthrax related), and putting the bacteria into producing dormant spores then they have good conditions to grow would be really difficult.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Some possible solutions for the design issues are to make the bacteria produce the right kind of bacillus that is safe for us, to change the bacteria’s “good growing environment”, and to make the spores grow in the winter.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> To produce the right kind of bacillus that is safe for us, we would need to change its genes to make it dependent on us, and get rid of any genes that could possibly hurt us. Either that or we could transfer the genes that make anthrax spores UV resistant into a safer bacteria, such as our skin bacteria.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> To have the bacteria producing dormant spores, we would have to instruct the bacteria so that they think that the normal environment (your skin) is not normal. This would cause them to stay as spores.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> To keep bacteria creation going, it could be made so the spores find the environment perfect in the fall (spring in the southern hemisphere) and grow, but in the other season they find the environment bad, and stop growing. This would allow your skin to be sufficiently protected in the months with less UV and well protected in the months with more UV.