Wednesday, November 08, 2006
My Family.
Ok, maybe this post goes a little deep - but I'm looking for ideas. My Dad has herediatory form of bowel cancer which can be found in a mutation of the MYH gene. The only way you can suffer from this is if you have the two recessive mutant genes (One from your mother and one from your father) - Around 1 in 200 people are carriers of the gene, meaning that the sufferer is 1 in 40000.
As my dad is a sufferer it means that potentially my sister and I are sufferers and definately carriers - so it's down to my mum. My mum is definately not a sufferer. She has had no tests, but I can say this conclusively as I have had the test giving me the all clear meaning I inherited a clean gene from my mother, but she may be a carrier, meaning that my sister still could be a sufferer as she has not been tested.
So, what can I tell from this about my family?
Sadly, my grandad died from the same problem, and tests have proven he was a sufferer. So that means my nan is a carrier as my uncle is safe (my dad's brother), but it does mean that my grandad's brothers and sisters could have also been sufferers as we know my grandad inherited the two mutant genes from his mother and father.
My grandad was of a large family, 16 brothers and 2 sisters. Leaving to chance and not knowing enough about my great grandparents that at best there were less than 9 sufferers of the herediatory cancer in my grandads brothers and sisters and most would be carriers.
The majority of my grandads siblings are men, carrying the name Francis. We are a distant family, being so large, and I feel I know something which could affect my great uncles and aunts and their children which they should know. Please reply to this post if you are part of the large Birmingham UK Francis family (I think we hail from Solihull / Marston Green area).
What I really want to do is create awareness and help research into this, so any ideas for raising money and creating awareness are much appreciated. My dad is part of some research at Cardiff University at the moment - so some monetary help for this could be a start.
Ok, maybe this post goes a little deep - but I'm looking for ideas. My Dad has herediatory form of bowel cancer which can be found in a mutation of the MYH gene. The only way you can suffer from this is if you have the two recessive mutant genes (One from your mother and one from your father) - Around 1 in 200 people are carriers of the gene, meaning that the sufferer is 1 in 40000.
As my dad is a sufferer it means that potentially my sister and I are sufferers and definately carriers - so it's down to my mum. My mum is definately not a sufferer. She has had no tests, but I can say this conclusively as I have had the test giving me the all clear meaning I inherited a clean gene from my mother, but she may be a carrier, meaning that my sister still could be a sufferer as she has not been tested.
So, what can I tell from this about my family?
Sadly, my grandad died from the same problem, and tests have proven he was a sufferer. So that means my nan is a carrier as my uncle is safe (my dad's brother), but it does mean that my grandad's brothers and sisters could have also been sufferers as we know my grandad inherited the two mutant genes from his mother and father.
My grandad was of a large family, 16 brothers and 2 sisters. Leaving to chance and not knowing enough about my great grandparents that at best there were less than 9 sufferers of the herediatory cancer in my grandads brothers and sisters and most would be carriers.
The majority of my grandads siblings are men, carrying the name Francis. We are a distant family, being so large, and I feel I know something which could affect my great uncles and aunts and their children which they should know. Please reply to this post if you are part of the large Birmingham UK Francis family (I think we hail from Solihull / Marston Green area).
What I really want to do is create awareness and help research into this, so any ideas for raising money and creating awareness are much appreciated. My dad is part of some research at Cardiff University at the moment - so some monetary help for this could be a start.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
It's been a long time since i've posted, but to be fair I got really pissed about blogging, because the system was so slow last time I tried.
Whats new:
A degree (BSc (Hons) 2.1) - not a first, but I can take pride that I almost did :)
New Job, well back at Talis, but it's a new role. I've been there 3 weeks now and i'm working in a wicked team with three new faces with me, with all the right people left in the team from last year.
I think I have a wedding venue too, keep it here guys!
Whats old - still got the Corsa, boo - it's the crappest car on gods earth, well certainly the worst i've ever driven - and I once owned a Metro!
To be fair I miss my old car, a bright yellow Citroen Saxo - I wonder where it is? at least I know where my C2 is, in a scrap yard. damn loser i am ...
Whats new:
A degree (BSc (Hons) 2.1) - not a first, but I can take pride that I almost did :)
New Job, well back at Talis, but it's a new role. I've been there 3 weeks now and i'm working in a wicked team with three new faces with me, with all the right people left in the team from last year.
I think I have a wedding venue too, keep it here guys!
Whats old - still got the Corsa, boo - it's the crappest car on gods earth, well certainly the worst i've ever driven - and I once owned a Metro!
To be fair I miss my old car, a bright yellow Citroen Saxo - I wonder where it is? at least I know where my C2 is, in a scrap yard. damn loser i am ...
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
BBC news, amongst others, are reporting a 'milestone' in lab grown organs - a process that creates the organs from the patients own cells. I wonder, whether they would do this work if the patient required a new organ had a herediatory disease (associated with that organ). Great news though ...
Damn propaganda - "Wolverhampton beat Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Holyhead in Wales and Paisley in Scotland to the ‘Talk of the Town’ title." Wolverhampton University
Monday, April 03, 2006
A search routine - my interpretation
//search for the term
"lost in space"
//remove small words and search
"lost space"
//reverse remaining words and search
"space lost"
//search for a single term
"space"
//and
"lost"
and that will account for most combinatations and should get a good result!
//search for the term
"lost in space"
//remove small words and search
"lost space"
//reverse remaining words and search
"space lost"
//search for a single term
"space"
//and
"lost"
and that will account for most combinatations and should get a good result!
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
"Every week, he milks lethal marine molluscs called cone shells for their venom, using a condom, barbecue tongs and a fish." BBC wisdom - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4846504.stm
Friday, March 03, 2006
This is for those of you having trouble finding a computer in the MI block at uni.
I've noticed some observations over the last few weeks, firstly that the MI block is really rammed and very noisey at peak times - but the people in the MI block are not always SCIT or SEBE - this is a way to protect against all computers being taken by other school's students as they have their own PC's in their own buildings, also the IT suite on the third floor of the library.
Protection 1. Simply, just the other day I turned off all the monitors at a particular cluster, to my suprise whilst the rest of the MI was full no -one was on that cluster, and a girl kindly lent over and told me they weren't working so I switched on the monitor and worked away.
Protection 2. Boot into SuSE - it scares people when they see something different, also when the command comes from the AD for the shutdown of the computers at night SuSE machines are exempt :D meaning that they are still in SuSE in the morning!
Protection 3. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK OF ELECTRICUTION! So SuSe and switching off the monitor didn't scare them off - try unplugging the monitor? or as far as the base unit? Also the uni machines are completely useless without a network connection (catch my drift?)
Protection 4. So you bottled protection three, well you can always try swapping the mice over with another pc on the cluster - good for a laugh at least!
I've noticed some observations over the last few weeks, firstly that the MI block is really rammed and very noisey at peak times - but the people in the MI block are not always SCIT or SEBE - this is a way to protect against all computers being taken by other school's students as they have their own PC's in their own buildings, also the IT suite on the third floor of the library.
Protection 1. Simply, just the other day I turned off all the monitors at a particular cluster, to my suprise whilst the rest of the MI was full no -one was on that cluster, and a girl kindly lent over and told me they weren't working so I switched on the monitor and worked away.
Protection 2. Boot into SuSE - it scares people when they see something different, also when the command comes from the AD for the shutdown of the computers at night SuSE machines are exempt :D meaning that they are still in SuSE in the morning!
Protection 3. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK OF ELECTRICUTION! So SuSe and switching off the monitor didn't scare them off - try unplugging the monitor? or as far as the base unit? Also the uni machines are completely useless without a network connection (catch my drift?)
Protection 4. So you bottled protection three, well you can always try swapping the mice over with another pc on the cluster - good for a laugh at least!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
are cows clever enough to get across cattle grids?
