As the semester winds down and everybody gears up for finals, I’m starting to find a lot of exciting connections between all of my classes. It’s a pretty great feeling, and it always amazes me how exciting it is to … Continue reading
For a couple decades now, scientists and public media have been talking about pyschoneuroimmunology, PNI — that funny field at the intersection of what we think and how the chemicals in our body respond to make us healthy or ill. … Continue reading
Scientists develop drugs with the best of intentions, but at times they find that the drugs they create interact negatively with the body, or with the microbiome. For instance, the anti-cancer drug camptothecin (CPT-11), commonly used to treat colon cancer … Continue reading
Yesterday I also learned a bit about the biochemical/orgo basis for how Claritin works, during the orgo II drug poster sessions. I learned that Claritin is a second generation antihistamine, which means that it is a non-sedative antihistamine (while first … Continue reading
This came up as I was skimming the internet… Jimmy Kimmel asked people on a gluten free diet: “Do you know what gluten is?” Hahaha, you can guess the answers…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/gluten-free-people-have-no-idea-what-gluten-is_n_5273980.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
So today was our last day of orgo lab, and we all presented on our drug synthesis papers. In my paper and in my presentation today, I explained the synthesis and biochemical function of azithromycin, also known as Zithromax or … Continue reading
I just listened to this little story on NPR about biochemists at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California (across the street from my high school!!) who are attempting to create two new synthetic bases for DNA. Honestly, my gut … Continue reading
I recently came across this interesting condition called dermatographic urticaria, also known as dermatographism or “skin writing”. The more common name for urticaria is hives, or bumpy/red skin rash that may be caused by allergies. Dermatographism is a prevalent type of … Continue reading
We mentioned in class some time ago that micelles could be potential drug carriers in their aqueous core. Since my research from the past two years has been on drug and vaccine delivery (“controlled-release”), I perked up a bit at … Continue reading
In the chaos of this last week of classes, it is easy to get lost in exams and the mucky details of classes. So I was happily surprised today when, during final presentations for my Organic Chemistry class, I had … Continue reading