full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Amber M. Yates: How this disease changes the shape of your cells

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Today, most people with sickle-cell dssaeie can trace their ancestry to a country where mralaia is eednmic. And this mutation still plays a key role in Africa, where more than 90% of malaria infections occur wwlddoire. ftltaoneruy, as this “adaptation” thrives, our treatment for sickle cell continues to improve. For yreas, hydroxyurea was the only medication available to reduce the amount of sickling, blunting symptoms and increasing life expectancy. Bone marrow tiaptratnlnnosas offer a curative measure, but these perucdreos are complicated and often inaccessible. But promising new medications are intervening in novel ways, like keinpeg oxygen bonded to hemoglobin to prevent sklicnig, or reducing the stickiness of sickled cells. And the ability to edit DNA has raised the possibility of enabling stem cells to produce normal hemoglobin. As these tloos become available in the aears most affected by malaria and sickle cell disease, we can improve the quality of life for more patients with this adverse adaptation.

Open Cloze

Today, most people with sickle-cell _______ can trace their ancestry to a country where _______ is _______. And this mutation still plays a key role in Africa, where more than 90% of malaria infections occur _________. ___________, as this “adaptation” thrives, our treatment for sickle cell continues to improve. For _____, hydroxyurea was the only medication available to reduce the amount of sickling, blunting symptoms and increasing life expectancy. Bone marrow ________________ offer a curative measure, but these __________ are complicated and often inaccessible. But promising new medications are intervening in novel ways, like _______ oxygen bonded to hemoglobin to prevent ________, or reducing the stickiness of sickled cells. And the ability to edit DNA has raised the possibility of enabling stem cells to produce normal hemoglobin. As these _____ become available in the _____ most affected by malaria and sickle cell disease, we can improve the quality of life for more patients with this adverse adaptation.

Solution

  1. areas
  2. years
  3. keeping
  4. worldwide
  5. disease
  6. endemic
  7. tools
  8. malaria
  9. sickling
  10. procedures
  11. transplantations
  12. fortunately

Original Text

Today, most people with sickle-cell disease can trace their ancestry to a country where malaria is endemic. And this mutation still plays a key role in Africa, where more than 90% of malaria infections occur worldwide. Fortunately, as this “adaptation” thrives, our treatment for sickle cell continues to improve. For years, hydroxyurea was the only medication available to reduce the amount of sickling, blunting symptoms and increasing life expectancy. Bone marrow transplantations offer a curative measure, but these procedures are complicated and often inaccessible. But promising new medications are intervening in novel ways, like keeping oxygen bonded to hemoglobin to prevent sickling, or reducing the stickiness of sickled cells. And the ability to edit DNA has raised the possibility of enabling stem cells to produce normal hemoglobin. As these tools become available in the areas most affected by malaria and sickle cell disease, we can improve the quality of life for more patients with this adverse adaptation.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
red blood 9
blood cells 6
sickle cell 5
blood vessels 2
sickled cells 2
symptoms experienced 2
cell mutation 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
red blood cells 6
sickle cell mutation 2

Important Words

  1. ability
  2. adaptation
  3. adverse
  4. affected
  5. africa
  6. amount
  7. ancestry
  8. areas
  9. blunting
  10. bonded
  11. bone
  12. cell
  13. cells
  14. complicated
  15. continues
  16. country
  17. curative
  18. disease
  19. dna
  20. edit
  21. enabling
  22. endemic
  23. expectancy
  24. fortunately
  25. hemoglobin
  26. hydroxyurea
  27. improve
  28. inaccessible
  29. increasing
  30. infections
  31. intervening
  32. keeping
  33. key
  34. life
  35. malaria
  36. marrow
  37. measure
  38. medication
  39. medications
  40. mutation
  41. normal
  42. occur
  43. offer
  44. oxygen
  45. patients
  46. people
  47. plays
  48. possibility
  49. prevent
  50. procedures
  51. produce
  52. promising
  53. quality
  54. raised
  55. reduce
  56. reducing
  57. role
  58. sickle
  59. sickled
  60. sickling
  61. stem
  62. stickiness
  63. symptoms
  64. thrives
  65. today
  66. tools
  67. trace
  68. transplantations
  69. treatment
  70. ways
  71. worldwide
  72. years