Final Days with Biomedicine

Shockingly, my time in Copenhagen is quickly coming to an end. This week I had my final exam in Biomedicine and a paper due as well. The paper covered things we learned on our two study tours and I was very pleased with our results. We focused on how improved technology has effected the biopharmaceutical industry and vice versa- since new discoveries lead to new technology. We assessed the good and bad consequences of such changes and one thing we really noticed was that if prices of new advances drugs go up, would insurance companies pay for such drugs when cheaper possibly similarly effective drugs are still available? For example new chemotherapies are more targeted so the patients have less side effects and can therefore tolerate higher doses of the drug. This means that the patient might need fewer chemotherapy sessions to get the same results and normal chemotherapy, however it would cost less. While this would drastically improve quality of life for the patient, insurance companies may not be willing to see it as such. Our final conclusion was that future advancements in bio-related technology should be made to benefit the consumer and not be advancement for the sake of advancement.

Renewable Energy Field Study

This Wednesday I had my last field study with my Renewable Energy Systems class. We were lucky enough to spend the time playing with Legos!! The game was called "changing the game" which involved groups being assigned a region of Europe and lego model representing what energy sources that region uses. The goal was to use our budget to implement changes in the infrastructure to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible. We started with a target goal- our group chose 0 carbon emissions and 100% renewable energy which was a long shot but since it was a game we decided we were "all in". Since we were just having fun we were able to ask lots of questions throughout (it was a 3 hour process) and we learned a lot from the game instructors. One thing we immediately noticed was that they left out geothermal energy which could have been an important addition since it can supply base load. While we still had to use coal at the end of the game, our whole system had decreased emissions mostly due to the implementation of more energy efficient technology. I have read in many places that switching to energy efficient devices is an easy first step in the right direction because it would have an enormous effect on CO2 emissions. The current problem with this solution is that it can be expensive for companies to completely redo their infrastructure even though in most cases it saves them money in the long run. Over all it was a great experience and a fun way to spend our class!

Pictures from London, Berlin, and Hamburg

Some Pictures of my trip to London, Berlin and Hamburg Last week!

london

london

oxford

oxford

oxford

high tea in Oxford

Big Ben in London!

London Eye

london

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace- actors!

Hamburg!

Hamburg!

berlin!

berlin!

holocaust memorial, Berlin

Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

London Study Tour

After returning from my trip to London, I am even more fascinated with the world of biotech/ biopharmaceuticals. We visited several companies and university research lab among which included Oxford University and UCL (University College of London). Oxford was beautiful and we even had High Tea while there (pictures to come). My favorite company visit was to Spirogen, a biotech company recently acquired for 440 million USD by MedImmune (and other controlling companies). They have been developing new chemotherapy delivery methods using an antibody-linker-drug complex. Essentially the antibodies bind to receptors specific to cancer cells and the cell "eats" the molecule at which point the drug is released. This is the most important characteristic of Spirogen's device; other companies have had similar molecules. Spirogen has developed a drug that binds to the minor grove of the DNA helix preventing DNA replication. This essentially ends replication of the cell killing the tumor cell. Further, since this drug targets DNA replication instead of damaging the DNA directly, the DNA can't mutate to maintain growth (i.e. what happens in drug resistance in cancers). It is thought that this medication can be useful in drug resistant cancers and several versions are in clinical trials. MedImmune, the parent company has developed similar drugs for use in Leukemia and Lymphoma, both of which have had excellent results. Some of their drugs have even started the process of being approved as the initial treatment of patients (instead of for recurring/ drug resistant cancers) due to its impressive results.
While in London I was also lucky enough to go on a bike tour and see Wicked the musical. London was an amazing city and I am so happy that I got the chance to travel there and explore the presence of biotech there. I have become very interesting in exploring ways to come back to Europe to work for a year after college so all of my trips have been a great way to see where I could potentially work!