Jessica Cardin, PhDProtein degradation is a main component of the body to enable proper function and tissue maintenance. Certain types of cancer have demonstrated to have an enhanced ability to degrade malformed proteins through intracellular systems. The ability to break these proteins down has the potential to protect cancerous cells and allow them to proliferate. Specific degradation pathways have exhibited the capacity to alter the cell cycle, leading to tumors to increase in aggressiveness ...

Chelsea Goodenough, HBScBreast cancer is the most common type of cancer that kills women world-wide [1]. Emerging out from under the emotional and financial burden of this disease is the united front of patients, families and researchers alike seeking to understand the complexity of this disease. With exercise's noted benefit to a 30-40% reduction in breast cancer risk, investigation into mechanisms that may be attributing to these findings have unveiled a frontrunner - microRNA. MicroRNA ar...

Tyler Grubic, M.S.Intense weight lifting and/or sprints, including acute single bouts, can promote exercise-induced stress responses, characterized by muscle damage and inflammation similar to stress associated with cardiovascular events and illnesses [10-12]. Decreased performance due to muscle soreness is not the direct result of inflammation, but rather a product of pain and mechanical receptor sensitivity to products of muscle breakdown, such as circulating chemicals and intramuscular protei...

Alexis Appelquist, Huffines Producer   Everyone has that one friend who always seems to be attempting some new diet regiment. Maybe they’re doing a juice cleanse in order to detoxify their system, or trying to eat nothing but raw vegetables. Odds are they read about it in a magazine, saw it on a commercial, or have a distant relative-in-law that swears they took six inches off their waistline with this latest trend. Lately, you may have heard of going Paleo or the Whole30 or the ...

Chelsea Goodenough, B.S.The human body is capable of powerful things. When in prime condition, we are capable of adrenaline induced She-Hulk strength, and fighting the effect of zero gravity by walking on the moon. This, to most of us, is recognizable as disease, and is amongst us in the form of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to name only a few. A disease that affects nearly 246,660 new people every year, is breast cancer, with an estimated 40,...

Erin SimmonsProtein is often thought to be a workout necessity, the essential complement to every gym bag. Missing protein during the post-workout anabolic window is viewed as unfortunate, if not detrimental to one’s training goals. However, the scientific literature on this subject isn’t quite so black and white. Reviews of protein requirements have touted 1.8 g-1kg-1day-1 as the optimal protein intake for individuals undergoing training, when in fact the literature has propose...

Corrine Metzger, M.S.An uncontained fire can quickly spread and wreak havoc on areas both near and far to the instigating source. Under the right conditions, one flame can set a whole forest on fire and soon spread beyond its confines. In a similar way, inflammation can start at a local region in the body, but the damaging effects can spread to distant sites. One example of far spread damage of inflammation is the bone loss concurrent with inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammatory bowel disease (...

Adam Kieffer, MSIf you’ve visited your doctor for a check-up and had your blood cholesterol checked, chances are you were told about “good” and “bad” cholesterol. If your numbers weren’t the best, or you have a family history of heart disease, your doctor may have recommended that you decrease your “bad” cholesterol and increase your “good” cholesterol. Your “bad” cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol del...

Jessica Cardin, MSThe regulation of protein assembly and disassembly (protein flux) within the body has been a topic that has been studied extensively for the last 60 years. However, the majority of the research has been mostly focused on the rates of assembly (synthesis) and the related methodologies. Protein disassembly (degradation) is an equally viable research endeavor, as it is the other half of protein flux within tissues and whole body systems.The body has many protein pools that ar...

Vincent C.W. Chen, B.S.When eating less to reduce weight, it is hard not to lose some muscle mass. During dieting, the body struggles to keep sufficient energy stores, and therefore, it will break down muscle proteins to satisfy energy needs. While the basic equation for muscle mass is rate of protein synthesis subtracted rate of protein breakdown, decrease in muscle size will be observed if muscle protein breakdown is not prevented while on a calorie-deficit diet.It has been well established th...