1. AUTHOR Juan Carlos Torres Sánchez804-11-9230 BIOL 3095 DATE 9/5/11 <br />Seminar 1 on Stem Cells, Discussing the Seminar Presentation<br /> On September 26 and 27, we had a seminar with Jessian Muñoz, a college graduate student at New Jersey Medical School. This experience has opened my mind in a new aspect of science I did not know quite well, the cancer stem cells. How could cancer stem cells be the primary consequence of brain tumors? That question was well answered by our seminar person of this week, which was Jessian Muñoz. Due to his knowledge, we learned about brain tumors, what the starting point is and about a new topic, the microRNA. The microRNA was discovered in the human genome project, which demonstrates how science discoveries have made lots of great advances in benefits of health care. Dysfunction in microRNA signaling is present in all cancers that have been studied thus far.<br /> There was also the discussion about cancer stem cells (CSC). Cancer stem cells are the cause of brain tumors, the problem that we had before was that with chemotherapy, the cells that were target were the ones around the cancer stem cells so the cancer would normally spread again. What they are trying to do is to target with chemo and radiotherapy cancer stem cells for a better result. They are encountering problems with this procedure also as cancer stem cells are reappearing after therapy. Jessian’s lifelong goals changed during the course of his studies, he went from wanting to be a pedriatitian to studying a PhD. This demonstrates how it doesn’t matter how long it will take or if I change my goals, as long as I persevere it will be all worth it at the end. I recommend these types of seminars to anyone who wants to get more knowledge on exciting topics. <br />