Melissa L Armas

Nova Southeastern University | NSU · Department of Medical Education

Purpose: We aimed to develop a tool that would allow assessment of ethics competency and moral distress during the Internal Medicine Clerkship and to introduce curricular changes that could empower students to better address ethical dilemmas and challenges encountered during the clerkship. Materials and methods: A structured ethics assignment wa...

Social class and classism can be traced back to the beginning of written history when social standing was based on nobility and family rank. In modern-day society, social standing is based on wealth and socioeconomic status. Classism refers to the marginalization of an individual or a group based on social class or perceived social class. It can be...

Introduction The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected medical education in many ways. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) temporarily suspended clinical student rotations, calling for a transition to remote learning. Unfortunately, due to the heavy impact of COVID-19 in our South Florida community, medical stude...

Cigarette smoking extensively affects public health across the globe. Smokers have a high incidence of lung cancer, but also have been linked with other cancers, such as breast, colon, larynx, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, kidney and bladder. Apart from cancer development, cigarette smoking is associated with the depletion of circulati...

Abstract Introduction This assignment allows students to build on the professionalism and ethics knowledge base they have obtained during their preclinical years. It provides them with the opportunity to apply their knowledge of ethical and professional principles and professionalism knowledge they have acquired to the clinical setting and patient...

In previous studies, we found that adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) blocks the base excision repair (BER) pathway by interacting with 5'-flap endonuclease 1 (Fen1). In this study, we identify the molecular features that contribute to the formation and/or stabilization of the APC/Fen1 complex that determines the extent of BER inhibition, and the sub...

Cigarette smoking is associated with numerous adverse health effects caused to nearly every organ of the body, which account for an estimated 438 000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths each year in the United States (Centers for disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Fact Sheet, January 2008). Cigarette smo...

Environmental mutagens are global health hazards and a major risk factor for colon cancer development. Environmental mutagens include a variety of genotoxic carcinogenic compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, nitrosamines, and aromatic amines. Their sources are pollution, diet, alcohol and cigarette smoke. These...

DNA alkylation-induced damage is one of the most efficacious anticancer therapeutic strategies. Enhanced DNA alkylation and weakened DNA repair capacity in cancer cells are responsible for the effectiveness of DNA-alkylating therapies. 5'-Flap endonuclease 1 (Fen1) is an important enzyme involved in base excision repair (BER), specifically in long-...

Mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene are associated with an early onset of colorectal carcinogenesis. Previously, we described a novel role for the APC polypeptide in base excision repair (BER). The single-nucleotide (SN) and long-patch (LP) BER pathways act to repair the abasic sites in DNA that are induced by stressors, such as...

Recently, we found an interaction between adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and DNA polymerase beta (pol-beta) and showed that APC blocks strand-displacement synthesis of long-patch base excision repair (LP-BER) (Narayan, S., Jaiswal, A. S., and Balusu, R. (2005) J. Biol. Chem. 280, 6942-6949); however, the mechanism is not clear. Using an in vivo L...