38 research outputs found
The role of tenascin-C in tissue injury and tumorigenesis
The extracellular matrix molecule tenascin-C is highly expressed during embryonic development, tissue repair and in pathological situations such as chronic inflammation and cancer. Tenascin-C interacts with several other extracellular matrix molecules and cell-surface receptors, thus affecting tissue architecture, tissue resilience and cell responses. Tenascin-C modulates cell migration, proliferation and cellular signaling through induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines and oncogenic signaling molecules amongst other mechanisms. Given the causal role of inflammation in cancer progression, common mechanisms might be controlled by tenascin-C during both events. Drugs targeting the expression or function of tenascin-C or the tenascin-C protein itself are currently being developed and some drugs have already reached advanced clinical trials. This generates hope that increased knowledge about tenascin-C will further improve management of diseases with high tenascin-C expression such as chronic inflammation, heart failure, artheriosclerosis and cancer
Queering Virtual Reality: A Prolegomenon
In this chapter, we investigate how innovations in STEM, such as Virtual
Reality (VR) and 3D Sculpting, can support the development of critical
literacies about gender and sexuality. Our work arises from the concern
that the assumed \naturalness" of male/female binary categories in biol-
ogy is often at the center of the queer, trans, and intersex panics in public
education. Echoing sociologists and critical scholars of gender and sexu-
ality, we posit that transgender and queer identities should be positioned
as realms of playful, active inquiry. Further, we investigate how new
forms of computational representational infrastructures can be leveraged
to support productive and playful experiences of inquiry about gender and
sexuality. We present a retrospective analysis of a design group meeting of
a small group of friends in their early thirties with gender nonconforming
and queer identities and life histories. The group interacted in VR-based
environments, where they engaged in two di erent forms of construction-
ist learning experiences: creating 3D sculptures of personally meaningful
objects, and re-creating their VR avatars in VR social media. Our analysis
illustrates how such experiences can be productively analyzed using so-
cial constructivist perspectives that situate knowing as boundary play and
gured worlds, and the roles that play and friendship have in supporting
deep and critical engagement with complex narratives and marginalize