Michael Bishop Harold Lemus

1. Michael BishopHarold Lemus By: Derek Burgos Krystal Trastoy Meyer p.3

2. What is Cancer? • Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer can be made up into 4 broader categories: 1.Carcinoma- Cancer that begins in the skin. 2.Sarcoma- Cancer that begins in Bones, Muscle, fat, Cartilage, and blood Vessels. 3.Leukemia-Cancer that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow. 4.Lymphoma and myeloma- Cancer that begins in the cells of the Immune system. 5.Central Nervous system Cancers-Cancers that begin in the tissues in your brain or spinal cord

3. Cancer • - Harold and Lemus introduced to the world a new theory to cancer developments. • -They used an oncogenic retrovirus to observe the growth of oncogenes in normal cells. • - They discovered that cells that are affected by cancer, called malignant cells, arise from mutations of our genes.  • -Malignant cells tend to divide rapidly then they should although the body doesn't need them. This results in mass or growth called tumors. 

4. Cancer • - Before Michael and Harold discovered the malignant cells in 1976, people believed that these cancer cells developed from cells that grew on their own. • - They had no idea that you can trigger cancer by coming in contact with different things during cell division. For example, cigarette smoking, radiation and particular viruses.  • - In the medical field no one knew all this information that helped save lives in the future. • - During a backpacking trip to California in 1969, Varmus visited a small group at the University of California where he joined heads with Michael Bishop, Leon Levintow, and Warren Levinson, and begun to study retroviruses to detect cancer-causing genes.

5. What was the importance of this innovation • - What Lemus and Bishop did by discovering these cancer cells and how they developed they changed the perspective of everything to do with cancer. • - They opened up so many doors to new discoveries, prevention's, and cures to help fight this terrible disease. • - Introducing this to the world helped people understand their disease in full detail and let them know that they can find ways to help them live a longer life. • - After that discovery they didn't stop researching about cancer and found out new discoveries about DNA and Aids. 

6. Cancer • - Compared to how medicine was before this discovery people were clueless to how these cells kept on dividing although the body did not need it. • - People then started developing ways to avoid cancer and treatments to help with the disease.  • - Although they haven't discovered an official cure for cancer they use radiation that stops cells from dividing quickly. That is why people who are put on kimo loose their hair because the radiation doesn't only affect the malignant cells but it affects all the cells in your body. 

7. Resources • Resources • http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/MV/p-nid/184 • http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1989/press.html • http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/07/nobel-laureates-j-michael-bishop-and.html