Features from BIOTOC Connection
Alia Sabur: The World’s Youngest University Professor
Alia Sabur had a deep interest in science and math starting from a young age. Through her hard work and passion for the field, she set a world record in the STEM field.
Alia Sabur, from New York City, is a child prodigy and mathematician. With her dedication and intelligence, she defied the expectations for women in science and pursued her love for the field.
Spotlight: Q&A with Dr. Miriam Ben-Dayan
Dr. Miriam M. Ben-Dayan just recently completed her Ph.D. after eight years of hard work and long nights in the lab in addition to raising her two children. The subject of her thesis was the effect of two oncogenes (genes that can transfer regular cells to tumor cells) of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) on two tumor suppressor genes. Due to the situation with COVID-19, her defense took place over Zoom, which she acknowledges was “very strange” but is grateful that they still took place. Ben-Dayan has already had two papers published and also wrote a paper while on leave after giving birth to her second child.
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Industry News: Cosmetic Reforms, The Biorevolution, and a Pollution Solution
The push for transparency in the beauty industry has caused China to take official action by improving their 30-year-old cosmetic regulations. Between 2018 and 2019 the beauty industry increased by 40 billion dollars, making cosmetic sales hit a new high and continues to increase. In order to ensure consumer safety as many new companies enter the marketplace, China released a new set of Cosmetic Regulations to hold sellers accountable.
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Did You Know?
- Americans spend more money on cosmetics than education every year.
- An engineer is responsible for creating the slippery part of water slides, which allows people to slide down without getting stuck.
- There are over 4,375 apps released daily on the Google Play Store.
- The Ferris Wheel is considered to be one of the largest engineering wonders in history.
Health and Wellness in South Korea
South Korea is world-renowned for its dedication to health and wellness. The most well-known aspect of this is the focus on skincare. One statistic that highlights this is that South Korean men have become the world's biggest male spenders on skincare, according to CNN. But South Korean dedication to health and wellness goes beyond just skincare.
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Black Women Leading Industry Disruption through Entrepreneurship
As a part of our Beautiful Minds campaign, we are highlighting three brilliant, female entrepreneurs of color that are utilizing technology as a means to create change. These are the minds that are solving major issues in regards to cosmetic product waste, the lack of diversity in the tech industry, and food scarcity in the US.
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Young Scientists Saving the Environment with Tech Innovations
Deepika Kurup and Eesha Khare are two young scientists developing important technologies for our world. When they were only teenagers, they invented devices to save the environment.
Spotlight: Dr. Jan Rosenbaum, President, Chief Executive Officer, & CSO at Kurome Therapeutics, Inc.
As the President, CEO, and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at biotech startup Kurome Therapeutics, Dr. Jan Rosenbaum does a little bit of everything—including taking out the trash. The company is based on a technology that provides “a targeted approach for treating hematological cancers and beyond.” This technology was developed by a professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and two scientists at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institute of Health. Dr. Rosenbaum was brought on as a consultant to evaluate the potential for commercializing the technology and was able to build the business case and value proposition by focusing on novel aspects of the mechanism of action that allowed for differentiation of this technology from others being developed. Kurome’s technology targets cancer cells that develop an “adaptive resistance mechanism” which allows them to survive conventional treatments and thereby subverts cancer’s ability to evade therapy.
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Robert's Insights: What are Liposomes and how do they impact your skincare routine?
Liposomes protect, transport, and release your drug or ingredients at the right place and time. “The history of liposomes goes back to mid-1960s and credit of their birth goes to Banghamand and his coworkers, who discovered that phospholipids in presence of suitable solvents form bilayered membranes which finally curl-on to form unilamellar of multiamellar vesicles. The history of liposomes can be divided into three periods: Genesis, Middle age, and Modern era. A few years later, the structural description of liposomes was unveiled as small devices made of one or more closed phospholipid bilayers.” Liposomes have been further developed by pharmaceutical and later cosmetic industries also started to use liposome technology since 1986. The major types of liposomes are the multilamellar vesicle, the small unilamellar liposome vesicle, and the large unilamellar vesicle and the cochleate vesicle.
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Industry Update: Cosmetics, Neuroscience, and Biotech
Accessible cosmetic products are on the rise as the beauty industry looks to become more inclusive. For individuals living with disabilities, such as Parkinson’s Disease, using traditional skin and makeup products can be extremely difficult. Everything from product packaging to the tools used for application can create extreme challenges for millions of consumers with disabilities.
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Did You Know?
- Information from the brain travels at a whopping 268 miles per hour.
- Your DNA is fireproof.
- Peanuts are used as a key ingredient in dynamite. They create an explosive liquid called nitroglycerine.
- Forgetting information isn't always a bad thing as it is necessary for your brain to properly function.
- Frogs do not drink water using their mouths, they absorb it through their skin.
- Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman ever to receive a medical degree. She was also a strong advocate for reform in education, medicine, and women’s rights.
Skincare Science — More than Skin-Deep
Some of the most innovative new products in beauty have been spearheaded by scientists from all walks of life, according to Allure. The skincare industry has evolved to become one that prioritizes proven and effective results, and by embracing science, skincare has been able to delve beyond the surface. The brightest minds in science are working in labs around the world to create effective skincare, coming up with novel ideas for this cause.
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