As we learned from the videos last week, proteins are some of the most important components of our bodies. A protein is complex; it has four structures – a primary one that orders the amino acids in a protein, a … Continue reading
As Susan Lindquist noted the history of Mad Cow Disease in her video, my mind has wandered to the social occurrences which accompany diseases and plagues that have wiped out many peoples throughout history. As I further questioned the origination … Continue reading
The analogy in the short video assigned for this week comparing amino acids to words and proteins to paragraphs really helped me understand the differences in primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures. As we learned in class, there are many … Continue reading
Hemoglobin is an important substance in the body. It is an iron-rich protein that helps transport oxygen around the body. A disease that results from problems with hemoglobin is sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disease. It … Continue reading
Last week we learned about primary structures of proteins: the order of their amino acids. We know that the secondary and tertiary structure of the prion protein causes it to be normal versus infectious, so I was curious about the … Continue reading
So, we’ve been learning about the prion protein for a while now but this entire time we’ve ended conversations with “but there is not cure” which is pretty sad because people who contract prion diseases are suffering terrible deaths. They … Continue reading
So far during the semester, we’ve discussed scientific structures by starting with the smaller parts and working up to the larger compositions. As we learned, protons, neutrons and electrons compose atoms. Each atom is distinguished by a different number of … Continue reading
As we have learned, prion disease is essentially PrPc that transforms into a malicious variant which has a negative effect on the nervous system and likewise, a negative effect on the memory and other cognitive functions. Per the research and … Continue reading
When I watched the videos on the syllabus for this week, I was surprised to learn that yeast was so important in the discovery of mutated prion proteins. I had not really heard of the importance of yeast in scientific … Continue reading
Prion Disease As we’ve learned in our previous science classes, and in the Susan Lindquist lecture, proteins are capable of folding in an infinite number of ways. Proteins contain chains of nucleic acids and thus can have infinite combinations – … Continue reading