All 14 entries tagged Biochemistry

Hell Yes!

Follow-up to Dear Mr/Ms World from Something Random

As of the 5th of March Mia will be officially EMPLOYED.

Yes, EMPLOYED. 

E   M   P   L   O   Y   E   D   .

Parfait Amour celebrations will commence ahead of schedule, as will much bubble-bathage, pampering and singing musicals/radio karaoke out loud. Then after a while it will really sink in and I will have to have a little lie down I guess. Wow. Fucking hell. A Job. With many shiny pennies. and a health plan. Christ.

This is a big thing after all that being poor and tesco-value-ness.

I think I might have to have that lie down first... 

:)

M xxx 

: 13 Feb 2007 19:37 |  Tags: Biochemistry Mmmm Lovely |  Comments (14) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

And another thing…

A huuuge thank you!

to everyone who has done my questionnaire so far, Who knows, I may pass my degree after all!

I'll think of a better way show my gratitude when I have more time, but for now I leave you with a list found scrawled on the reverse of my revision notes.

Exam Catchphrases:
Structural Molecular Biology / BioPhysical Chemistry...

• …or how Mia learnt how to throw up her own spleen.
• …verbal violation of the mind.
• …almost as fun as rape.
• …I came, I saw, I cried (my eyes out then wrote some bullshit about circular dichroism oh God I hope I at least scrape a pass).
• …reinvigorating active acts of prayer in students victims since the 1960s.
• …and its inextricable link to the rise in suicide rates.
• …torture just got a whole degree smarter.
• …maybe she was so prepared she got a full 8 hours sleep the night before… Or maybe it's maybelline.
• …What were you thinking?

Hope you enjoyed them as much as they destroyed my mental ability. Good luck with exams everyone!

M xxx

: 26 May 2006 00:53 |  Tags: Biochemistry Grrrr |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Rockets!

Artwork from the Protein Targeting Exam.

Big red rockets.

I couldn't help myself, I just couldn't tear my eyes away. :|

M xxx

: 28 Apr 2006 03:17 |  Tags: Biochemistry Blogged Artwork Corrupting Freshers |  Comments (9) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Back on the 26^th.

Oh, y'know, "No real reason"...

: 20 Apr 2006 07:52 |  Tags: Biochemistry Grrrr |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Bacon

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this whole "revison" malarkey?

Yeah, well this was going to be a huge post on how much I hate the world right now and it's state of global retardation but it gradually dawned on me I was too disillusioned even to write coherent prose. So that bundle of fun will be arriving later.

M xxx

: 16 Apr 2006 22:48 |  Tags: Biochemistry Blogged Artwork Grrrr |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The fake sound of progress…

Revision Appraisal.

Several months, reams of paper, biros, cups of tea, handwritten booklets of notes, late nights re-reading, library books, summaries and slices of toast have been used up. And my development notes still appear to be written in Klingon. Aaaaaaarrrgh! :s

And there's less than a week left :(

: 14 Apr 2006 14:45 |  Tags: Biochemistry Grrrr |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Five and a bit weeks

One reaches a certain point in a degree, the "point of no return", when realisation dawns that although this isn't the subject for you, you've just got to bloody well get on with it because if you don't it brings the failure and the pain and the red hot flailing whips of torment lashing across your SOUL and… Ok… maybe I'm getting a bit carried away.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the clever ones jump ship early in the first year and the rest just hope and pray they can swim. Bah… praying… what's God got to do with it anyway? what's with the praying eh? If I pass it was God; If I fail it was me?! No thank you very much. I know exactly whose head the dunce hat/laurels of victory will rest and as such, I will take the blame or glory myself.

Fair is fair tho, and I won't forget it. So when Jesus descends from the heavens veiled in almighty light, don't worry – I won't try to take any of the credit.

M xxx

: 18 Mar 2006 15:46 |  Tags: Biochemistry Blogged Artwork Grrrr |  Comments (17) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Carbon dating proves nothing…

As a scientist I am happy to uphold a well tested theory until such time arrives that proof arises to contradict it, and in doing so develop a more accurate theory. This does mean that every now and then I have to admit I was wrong and adjust my belief system to accommodate this new evidence. It was while researching for my current final year project on evolution that I stumbled across such a piece of mind blowing evidence that shattered a belief I had held for years.

I now maintain that clowns are not the scariest thing I have ever seen.

They are now a close second to creationist websites.

: 05 Feb 2006 19:43 |  Tags: Biochemistry Grrrr |  Comments (25) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Sonic Hedgehog

ahahahahahahaha… I bet you thought this was going to be interesting.

Tough. It's not. Anyway heres a diagram of how the diffusable limb bud morphogen Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) interacts with other proteins in the Zone of Polarising Activity and Apical Ectodermal Ridge during the determination and development of the antero-posterior axis in vertebrate limbs.

You're welcome to use this diagram except that it's quite awful looking really so I wouldn't recommend it.

M xxx

: 15 Nov 2005 19:02 |  Tags: Biochemistry |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Neural Induction; Reference list 2005

General references

• Harland, R. (2000) Current Opinions in Genetics and Development 10, 357–362
  Neural induction.


• Stern (2005) Development 132, 2007–2021
  Neural induction: old problem, new findings, yet more questions.


• De Robertis, E.M., Kuroda, H. (2004) Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 20, 285–308
  Dorsal-Ventral patterning and neural induction in xenopus embryos

Regional properties of the nervous system and planar induction

• Doniach, T. et al. (1992) Science 257, 542–545
  Planar induction of anteroposterior pattern in the developing central nervous system of xenopus laevis

Molecules involved in induction of anterior nervous system

• Lamb, T.K. et al. (1993) Science 262, 713–718
  Neural induction by the secreted polypeptide Noggin.


• Knecht, A.K. et al. (1995) Development 121, 1927–1936
  Dorsal-ventral patterning and differentiation of noggin-induced neural tissue in the absence of mesoderm.


• Hemmati-Brivanlou, A., Melton D.A. (1994) Cell 77, 273–281
  Inhibition of activin receptor signaling promotes neuralization in xenopus.


• Hemmati-Brivanlou, A. et al. (1994) Cell 77, 283–295
  Follistatin, an antagonist of activin, is expressed in the spemann organizer and displays direct neutralizing activity.


• Sasai et al. (1995) Cell 79, 779–790
  Xenopus chordin: A novel dorsalizing factor activated by organizer-specific homeobox genes.


• Hansen et al. (1997) Development 124, 483–492
  Direct neural induction and selective inhibition of mesoderm and epidermis inducers by Xnr3.


• Bouwmeester et al. (1996) Nature 382, 595–601
  Cerberus is a head-inducing secreted factor expressed in the anterior endoderm of Spemann's organizer. (abstract only)

Mechanism by which activation molecules work

• Zimmerman et al. (1996) Cell 86, 599–606
  The Spemann Organizer Signal noggin Binds and Inactivates Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4.


• Piccolo et al. (1996) Cell 86, 589–598
  Dorsoventral Patterning in Xenopus: Inhibition of Ventral Signals by Direct Binding of Chordin to BMP-4.


• Iemura et al. (1998) PNAS 95, 9337–9342
  Direct binding of follistatin to a complex of bone-morphogenetic protein and its receptor inhibits ventral and epidermal cell fates in early Xenopus embryo.


• Piccolo et al. (1999) Nature 397, 707–710
  The head inducer Cerberus is a multifunctional antagonist of Nodal, BMP and Wnt signals.


• Hawley et al. (1995) Genes and Development 9, 2923–2935
  Disruption of BMP signals in embryonic Xenopus ectoderm leads to direct neural induction. (abstract only)

Candidate molecules for the posteriorising signal, transformation

• Lamb and Harland (1995) Development 121, 3627–3636
  Fibroblast growth factor is a direct neural inducer, which combined with noggin generates anterior-posterior neural pattern.


• Doniach (1995) Cell 83, 1067–1070
  Basic FGF as an inducer of anteroposterior neural pattern.


• Kroll and Amaya (1996) Development 122, 3173–3183
  Transgenic Xenopus embryos from sperm nuclear transplantations reveal FGF signaling requirements during gastrulation.


• Blumberg et al. (1997) Development 124, 373–379
  An essential role for retinoid signaling in anteroposterior neural patterning.

Other candidate inducing molecules

• LeSueur and Graff (1999) Development 126, 137–146
  Spemann organizer activity of Smad10.


• Strong et al. (2000) Developmental Biology 222, 405–419
  Xbra3 induces mesoderm and neural tissue in Xenopus laevis.


• Delaune et al. (2005) Development 132, 299–310
  Neural induction in Xenopus requires early FGF signalling in addition to BMP inhibition.

Morpholino knock-down experiments

• Khokho et al. (2005) Developmental Cell, 401–411
  Depletion of Three BMP Antagonists from Spemann's Organizer Leads to a Catastrophic Loss of Dorsal Structures.


• Reversade et al. (2005) Development e press 23/6/2005
  Depletion of Bmp2, Bmp4, Bmp7 and Spemann organizer signals induces massive brain formation in Xenopus embryos.

——————-

And, as is quickly becoming tradition, the obligatory cute kitten picture

M xxx

: 10 Nov 2005 01:59 |  Tags: Biochemistry |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem