2014_10_27_CIE_invetigacion_biomedica
More than 100 students participate in a session on biomedical research from the School
Silvia Cenoz, PhD at Biochemistry , gave the lecture "Blue people" based on the case of the Fugate family suffering from methemoglobinemia (blue skin).
More than 100 students from high school diploma attended the lecture "Blue People: research Biomedical" given by the professor of the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra Silvia Cenoz in Madrid. The topic of the lecture was based on the peculiar case of the Fugate family from Kentucky (USA) who suffer from methemoglobinemia, a rare disease that causes the skin to appear blue.
"Methemoglobinemia is the excess of methemoglobin in the blood that causes deficient oxygenation. Naturally, hemoglobin is transformed into methemoglobin by oxidation, but to prevent its accumulation, cells set in motion a mechanism that returns it to hemoglobin. If this mechanism stops working, the methemoglobin accumulates, giving the skin that blue color," explained the expert.
"In this talk we wanted to highlight how the knowledge of the characteristics of the molecules and the biochemical reactions of our organism can help in the treatment of diseases", explained the expert. Thus, the attendees observed thanks to an experiment the oxidation-reduction process of methylene blue, a molecule used to treat this disease, which changes color from blue to colorless.