2023 Edition
“I can promise you that women working together – linked, informed and educated – can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.”
Isabel Allende
The Editor's Take: Welcome Back to the Newsletter!
Welcome back, AMWA UTD, to a new year of GBMs, Newsletters, socials, and numerous volunteering opportunities! To start off, I am honored to be your Editor-in-Chief this year and bring you exciting articles that detail women’s health, current news on healthcare, and general pre-health topics.
The Newsletter is comprised of six amazing writers who work each month to bring you engaging and informative articles. In addition to individual articles, we also have columns like - The Sex Talk You Never Had, Spotlight, Hot Button, Whats Poppin, Ask AMWA and Mind Over Matter.
We also encourage AMWA UTD members to submit any pieces of work they would like to see featured in the Newsletter. Along with each monthly newsletter, we have a Spotify playlist!
Our writers for this year are - Zoe Du, Gauri Guruprasad, Hafsa Mohammed, Riya Ramani, Alyssa Chiev, and Sahaana Anand. In this issue, we bring to you articles on Taking Charge of Your Health, Barbenheimer, and the Biolistic Delivery of Vaccines.
I hope you enjoy reading these articles, as we have truly put our whole hearts into them. If you have any topics, ideas, or your own pieces of writing that you would like to submit, please feel free to email me at Tanya.Baiju@utdallas.edu. I wish you all a great start to your semester!
- Tanya
Taking Charge of Your Health: College Student Edition
By: Hafsa Mohammed and Riya Ramani
As the new year starts, students have their ways of getting prepared. However, there’s one way that is often overlooked, and that is the doctors’ appointments. As college students, we may remember being dragged to them while we were younger, but now as adults, the responsibility is our own to ensure we are physically and mentally in the best shape before classes start. The primary health areas that students should be mindful of are sexual health, menstrual health, and mental health.
Students in college explore different parts of themselves, which may involve relationships and becoming sexually active. Besides abstinence, the best way to avoid STIs/STDs and accidental pregnancies is to use contraceptives. There are several different contraceptives out there. Here are 3 of the most common ones with their respective effectiveness.
Birth Control Pill: 93% effective
Protect against pregnancy
DO NOT protect against STD/STI
Intrauterine Device (IUD): 99% effective
Protect against pregnancy
DO NOT protect against STD/STI
Condoms: 87% effective
Protect against pregnancy
Protect against STD/STI
There are several contraceptives beyond just these three, so do your research and pick the best one. You can also talk to your primary care physician (PCP), and they can suggest which one they think is the best one for you.
In addition to sexual health, maintaining good menstrual hygiene is important. Menstruation is a process that almost every young woman goes through, and good menstrual hygiene is essential to maintaining good overall health. The three main hygiene products are Menstrual pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. However, several women lack access to and cannot afford menstrual hygiene products. So, if you do not have access to or cannot afford menstrual hygiene products, you can visit the campus health center and see if they have free products you can have. Menstrual hygiene is essential, and it is a great shame that they are not free since menstruation is a process that a woman endures monthly, so until then, please take care of yourself and reach out to the campus health center or your PCP.
A less tangible facet of care is mental health. Often, this gets pushed to the backseat behind the more tangible concerns of physical health. Students are more vulnerable to mental health issues due to the lack of time and self-care. Compared to physical illnesses, preventative mental health care often has less concrete solutions. The following are some methods of prevention that students should most definitely be aware of:
Substance Abuse: Social interaction has been identified as a critical method in preventing substance abuse, such as building a good support network that you can rely on and having a safe space to talk rather than finding other harmful outlets to release your stress.
Stress and Anxiety: Many harmful physical manifestations of stress result in a buildup of cortisol in your body which can affect sleep, mood, and various other aspects of health. Prevention strategies include having a good support network, finding non-destructive, healthy ways to release stress, and taking breaks.
Health is a broad area to tackle, and it’s not uncommon for people, especially busy students, to ignore their health for more pressing concerns such as grades and career goals. However, none of that can be accomplished without proper self-care and lifestyle. Below are resources for students to reach out to for help with any health concerns.
Mental Help
988 hotline - https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988
Student Counseling Center - https://counseling.utdallas.edu/
UTD Student Health Center - https://studenthealthcenter.utdallas.edu/
Free Vaccinations
TeleHealth
Sexual Assault Examination
Vision Care/Oral Health
Sexual Health
Barbenheimer
By: Zoe Du and Gauri Guruprasad
If you have been on social media this summer, you have probably heard of, and maybe even participated in, the cultural phenomenon of “Barbenheimer.” The double feature was released to theaters on July 21, 2023, and the Internet was in a pre-release frenzy, discussing which movie to see first. As aspiring health professionals, we can’t help but see health in everything, so we will be taking a brief look at the health implications of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
*Spoiler Alert!!! We will be discussing some of the plot points of Barbie and Oppenheimer.*
Greta Gerwig’s surprisingly controversial film adaptation of our beloved childhood dolls, Barbie, was unlike anything we could have ever expected. The film was an amusing tale of “Stereotypical Barbie” going into the “Real World,” which became an all-too-real reflection of the plight of the modern-day woman. While you could make a valid point about the lack of nuance and complexity while discussing these issues in the film, perhaps some people, particularly men who do not usually understand a woman’s experience, needed that unambiguous diegesis to finally empathize with us. When America Ferrera’s critically acclaimed monologue came up on the screen, it rendered me speechless and on the verge of tears as I heard women around me exclaiming in awe at how accurately Gerwig described the typical woman’s experiences. As a woman, “you have to never get old,” so you go to your dermatologist to get prescribed topical retinol to reduce the chance of wrinkles (Barbie). Don’t forget to slather on that sunscreen! “You have to be a boss,” but women who show assertiveness are often described as too domineering or even bashed with hateful slurs, while a man with the same attitude would be lauded as a man in control, as he should be (Barbie).
As women in medicine, we must be confident and decisive without letting these misogynistic remarks disparage us. Barbie ends with “Stereotypical Barbie” becoming a human, ready to face the trials and tribulations of womanhood, starting with a routine gynecologist check-up. Gerwig again reminds us of how a woman’s experience continues to be misunderstood, as routine appointments with your gyno are still not the norm, according to a CNN article interviewing Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen (Holcombe). As Barbie ended up finding her humanity through a gynecologist appointment, let us all find ours by getting our reproductive organs checked regularly and ignoring all the exhausting expectations weighing women down.
A biopic of the father of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, has a pretty clear connection to the devastating fatalities and radiation poisoning associated with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, we want to focus on the story Oppenheimer failed to tell: the injustices against the downwinders. With Oppenheimer in the spotlight receiving rave reviews, a painful history (and present reality) is being brought to the surface for downwinders, communities in New Mexico impacted by the Manhattan Project and Trinity Test. The first offense: Oppenheimer and his team of scientists built the atomic bomb at Los Alamos on land seized from Mexican and Indigenous homesteaders. When the Trinity Test was conducted, local communities in Tularosa and the Mescalero Apache Reservation received no warning that they witnessed an atomic blast nor that the ash that settled afterward was poisonous. Some residents even used contaminated cloths to make christening dresses. Residents report generational battles against rare cancers.
In the aftermath of Barbenheimer, movie-goers found both movies thought-provoking, with questions raised about what it means to be human, whether intentional or not. As aspiring health professionals, it is important to remember the humanity behind the work we hope to do. The extremely blatant and unequivocal theme of Barbie was to recognize a modern woman’s experience in the world and how that relates to her humanity. The untold stories of Oppenheimer warn against the cost of losing touch with our humanity but that it is not too late to change the future. The contrasting ideas of this phenomenon known as Barbenheimer caused a myriad of revelations about the human condition.
Biolistic Delivery of Vaccines
By: Alyssa Chiev and Sahaana Anand
Vaccines have a rich history of combating infectious diseases and improving public health and have been around since the late 18th century. Over the decades, scientific advancements led to the creation of vaccines for various diseases, such as polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and influenza. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to recognize and fight specific pathogens, such as viruses or bacteria, without causing disease. This process creates immunity so the human body can fight against future infections.
Vaccines have been instrumental in reducing the prevalence and severity of many deadly diseases. However, they also have many setbacks that should be addressed. Other than hesitancy due to concerns over the safety and possible side effects of vaccines, there also lies the fact that vaccines are not one hundred percent efficient. The need to constantly refrigerate and administer multiple injections before the vaccine proves effectiveness accumulates to not be feasible in the long term. Current administration methods of vaccines are not cost-efficient, causing them to be items of luxury rather than an accessible form of increasing public health. One other factor, turning the public away from vaccines is the use of needles. The appearance of needles can be intimidating to some individuals, making them hesitant regarding vaccination.
Research from our very own UTD lab Gassensmith Lab “focuses on the intersection of organic and solid-state chemistry with biomaterials, in particular, engineered virus-like particles” in order “to create implantable or injectable composites for long-term protein delivery.” The lab found a way to grow shells of MOF (metal-organic framework) that can thermally stabilize the surface of almost any protein, thus inhibiting denaturation and enabling the release of a protein without a burst. In terms of what this means for vaccines, the research is working on establishing forms of vaccines that are much more effective than modern-day vaccines.
This work would allow the healthcare system to administer only one dose vaccines that will still be stable at room temperature. This would allow for the administration, maintenance, and overall cost of vaccines to be lower, thus making them more effective and affordable for everyone. It would also boost patients to be more trusting of the effectiveness of vaccines since it will prove to be a much broader form of protection against infections and pathogens.
Not only will vaccines be more stabilized in this manner, but the Gassensmith lab, specifically Yalini H. Wijesundara, discovered a novel approach to vaccine delivery. Biolistic delivery involves using a device to propel microprojectiles into the targeted tissue. It is commonly used in genetic biology to deliver DNA into cells. This works because a desired drug will first be encapsulated with a liposome which will work as a carrier for the drug. However, since liposomes are prone to leakage, aggregation, and deformation, they could be better protected when encapsulated with ZIF-8, a metal-organic framework. ZIF-8 will penetrate the skin upon delivery and degrade over time allowing the liposome to deliver the drug.
Delivering vaccines biolistically would be more advantageous than the needle and syringe method for public health, mainly due to the lack of needles. Without needles, there would be less fear and hesitation, and overall would encourage the public to get vaccinated more often and increase the age range of those getting vaccines.
The Gassensmith lab has found a way to combine two essential components to enhance the future of vaccines; biocompatibility/stability and biolistic delivery. Encapsulating a drug within a MOF like ZIF-8 will improve its shelf life and is biocompatible within the skin. Biolistic delivery also eliminates the need for needles in general, increasing the number of the public getting vaccines and eliminating the biohazardous wastes from the needle and syringe method. Overall, the integration of ZIF-8 covered liposomes and the biolistic method delivery is groundbreaking and novel. There is more to be discovered about these methods, and according to the lab, it is possible even to play a role in treating cancers. Check out the original publication on this project here.
Sources
Barbie. Directed by Greta Gerwig, performances by Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, and Will Ferrell, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2023.
Bryan, S. M. (2023). “Oppenheimer” stirs up conflicted history for Los Alamos and New Mexico downwinders. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/oppenheimer-atomic-bomb-radiation-legacy-new-mexico-85d2b6f57395520a924dd44c492e4c56
Contreras, R. (2023). “Oppenheimer” brings painful memories for New Mexico hispanics. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2023/07/20/j-r-oppenheimer-movie-new-mexico-hispanics
Oppenheimer. Directed by Christopher Nolan, performances by Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, and Casey Affleck, Universal Pictures, 2023.
Holcombe, Madeline. “‘Barbie’ movie’s ending is an important reminder for women’s health.” CNN.com, Cable News Network, 26 July 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/26/health/barbie-ending-explainer-gynecologist-wellness/index.html
https://studenthealthcenter.utdallas.edu/
https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/college/index.html
https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/preventive-care/
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control
“Research – Gassensmith Lab.” Labs.utdallas.edu, labs.utdallas.edu/gassensmith/research/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.
“MOF-Jets—Even More DIY Drug Delivery – Gassensmith Lab.” Labs.utdallas.edu, labs.utdallas.edu/gassensmith/2023/04/06/mof-jets-even-more-diy-drug-delivery/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2023.
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