Created By: Sara Conry, Jillian Little, Sara Rouse & Chad Ostrowski

What is a Zombie?

• A person held to resemble the so called walking dead; especially automaton (Webster’s)

• the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose. (dictonary.com)

What’s a ZOMBIE anyway?

• OUR DEFINITION: An individual who due to circumstances has become uncontrollably aggressive, losing higher thinking and conscious control of actions, who spreads their condition through biting or violent physical means.

• IF you have seen the film “28 days later” kinda like that.

Haitian Folklore

• Zombi – spirit of the dead• Bokor – Voodoo Priest• Coup poudre – magic powder (made from

puffer fish – tetrodotoxin)

Tetrodotoxin

Octahydro-12-(hydroxymethyl)-2-imino-5,9:7,10a-dimethano-10aH-[1,3]dioxocino[6,5-d] pyrimidine-4,7,10,11,12-pentol

Molecular Formula: C11H17N3O8

Molecular Weight: 319.2706 g mol -1

Symptoms of Tetrodotoxin Exposure

• Slight numbness in lips and tongue (20 min – 3hrs after exposure)• Increasing paraesthesia in face and extremities• Headache• Epigrastric Pain, Nausea, Diarrhea, vomiting.• Difficulty walking• Increasing paralysis, Inability to move, respiratory distress, victim usually

exhibits dyspnea (shortness of breath), Cyanosis (blue coloration of skin), hypotension, paralysis increases, victim dies within 24 hrs or The effects go away after several days and after seeming to die the victim reawakens as the toxin decreases within their system. Residual damage due to lack of oxygen to brain and other tissues may occur.

Biological Synthesis

• The biological synthesis is yet to be fully explained, but evidence supports that it is produced by symbiotic bacteria. This means that the bacteria living within the “puffer fish” actually synthesize the toxin for secretion throughout the fishes body. This is an example of mutualistic symbiosis between species.

Laboratory Synthesis

Biochemical Action

Could Tetrodotoxin Cause a Zombie Apocalypse?

• Not likely….while the symptoms and history behind it are intriguing the mechanism and transmission is too confined. This in our opinion limits its apocalyptic potential. There is also a clear lack of aggression and other zombie like characteristics that result from exposure.

Sushi Anyone?

=Puffer Fish Fugu Sushi

Neurogenesis…say what?

• Birth of new neuronal cells

• Neuron: Nerve cell• Examples: Song control

nuclei of birds, olfactory pathway of rodents, insects and crustaceons

A Little History • "In adult centers the nerve paths are

something fixed, ended, immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated." -- Santiago Ramon Y Cajal, "Degeneration and Regeneration in the Nervous System," 1928

• 1960’s and 70’s: Brain can repair itself• 1998: New neurons grow in adult brain • Debate today: Where does it occur?

How can we use it? Should we?

Why is it important?

• Neurodegenerative diseases and disorders: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s

• Brain injury or trauma• Depression• Drug Addiction and Relapse

Nanotechnology

• Science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale

• Nanorobotics• Nanoscale: 1-100 nanometers• 1 nanometer = 1-billionth of a meter• Grey Goo

How small?

A Little History• “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”

by physicist Richard Feynman (1959): manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules

• Professor Norio Taniguchi (1970s): ‘nanotechnology’ term to describe “ultraprecision machining”

• 1930s: Electron Microscope (x 1 million)• 1980s: Scanning and Tunnelling

Microscope (STM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

• Today: Research and Development under NNI

Why is it important? • Natural nanomatersExamples: hemoglobin, DNA,

volcanic ash, sea spray• 800+ everyday commercial

products rely on nanoscale materials and processes

• Computing, Communication and Electronics

• Sustainable Energy Applications

• Medical and Biotechnology tools

Could Neurogenesis or Nanobots cause a Zombie Apocalypse?

• Not likely…once again the limited amount of transmission and inability of the nanobots to replicate limits the potential of these mechanisms to cause an apocalyptic zombie event…although still kinda scary like a zombie right?

• SO NOW WHAT???

I got this feelin’ inside me!…Parasites

• Benefit at cost of host organism generally depleting its resources and interact in a symbiotic relationship in which the parasite depends on the host for completion of its lifecycle.

• Some Parasites have been shown to be fatal and even change behavior of their host.

• Toxoplasma Gondii resides in mice and inhibits their fear of cats and their repulsion to feline urine. This goes directly against all instinctual notions that were once in place before infection. Some research has suggested that it makes humans more “thrill seeking” after infection.

“IT’S ALIVE!”…well not quite…Viruses• An Infections agent that can only

replicate within the cells of living organisms

• Due to only limited genetic material of their own, Viruses are able to mutate and evolve faster than almost anything else on the planet. Advances in technology and modern genetic engineering may also allow viruses to be “created” or hybridized with one another.

• Ex: Rabies (spreads from physical contact through biting) and Influenza (spreads through air and much quicker than other methods of transmission)

The “Silent” well…Foaming at the mouth biting and slobbering, killer…Rabies

• Rabies is a virus that is transferred from the bite of an infected victim…and infects the CNS (Brain).

• Symptoms: insomnia, anxiety, confusion, excitation, agitation, hypersalivation, hydrophobia and death after only days of symptom onset. In animals “Typically a phase occurs where rabid animals become very nasty, and will be irritable and snap and bite without being provoked or bothered. They may attack”.

CAN A CURRENT VIRUS OR PARASITE CAUSE A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE ALONE???

• Not Likely…Rabies limited by contagiousness and mechanical transmission, Toxoplasma Gondii seems to lack the occurrence of “zombie – like” traits.

• BUT WHAT IF……

WE COMBINE THEM???• Proposition: We would like to surmise that it may be possible (Due to the

viruses adaptability and advances in genetic engineering) to artificially create a hybridized version of the Rabies virus with the Influenza virus creating an “air-born” strain of Rabies that could easily spread throughout the population. We would also argue that DNA from Toxoplasma Gondii could be utilized to inhibit some of the higher brain function and inhibitions humans generally have that prevent them from becoming overly violent or “attacking” like their four legged counterparts when infected with the Rabies Virus. Once again the genetic simplicity and high rate of mutation viruses are capable of along with modern technology available make this potentially possible given the evidence we have found.

• THEN WHAT?

SO HOW WOULD THIS SUPER VIRUS GET OUT????

The Spread

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Terror has never been so Mathematical!

28 Days After Infection…uh oh.

Hmmmm….that sounds familiar?

What’s a Rabbit got to do with it?

• The Myxoma Virus was Let loose on the increasing Rabbit population of Austrailia.

• Virus and Rabbits Co-evolved through Natural Selection to cause longer lasting rabbits w/ more effectively spreading and less virulent virus.

What do the experts say? "If a rabies virus can mutate fast enough, it could cause infection within an hour or a

few hours. That's entirely plausible”

"Sure, I could imagine a scenario where you mix rabies with a flu virus to get airborne transmission, a measles virus to get personality changes, the encephalitis virus to cook your brain with fever"—and thus increase aggression even further—"and throw in the ebola virus to cause you to bleed from your guts. Combine all these things, and you'll [get] something like a zombie virus,”

- Samita Andreansky, PhD, Virologist, University of Miami

- SOURCE: Ker Thanfor, National Geographic News Published: Oct. 27th, 2010

So now we know, what do we do if…or when it happens?

References• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/1001027-rabies-influe

nza-zombie-virus-science/• http://www.animalhospitals-usa.com/dogs/dog-health/dog-rabies.html• http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp• http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apoca

lypse-could-actually-happen.html• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zombie• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zombie• http://www.umich.edu/~engl415/zombies/zombie.html• http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/zombi.htm• http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/ttx/ttx.htm• http://www.scripps.edu/chem/baran/images/grpmtgpdf/Vasan.pdf• http://www.ascentscientific.com/product.php?catno=Asc-054• http://www.life.umd.edu/grad/mlfsc/zctsim/ionchannel.html

• http://chemweb.calpoly.edu/cbailey/377/PapersW01/Jerry/• http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1964/pdf/0901x0049.pdf• http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4502/4502a2.pdf• http://www.life.umd.edu/grad/mlfsc/zctsim/ionchannel.html• http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/ttx/ttx.htm• http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodborneIllness/

FoodborneIllnessFoodbornePathogensNaturalToxins/BadBugBook/ucm070842.htm

• http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/quek/how.htm• http://www.scripps.edu/chem/baran/images/grpmtgpdf/Vasan.pdf• http://chemweb.calpoly.edu/cbailey/377/PagesW02/Brandon/• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X11000993• www.nano.gov• www.sfn.org