Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Is it true that anger secrets an enzyme that considerably reduces IQ? If yes, what's the enzyme called?

Hello! I'm trying to probe microsatellites (SSRs) in a mantid (T. sinensis) using two biotinylated oligo sequences [(CA)10 and (GA)10]. I know the concentration the probes need to be, but I don't know the volume. I've looked through numerous papers and can't find anyone who's reported the volume used. I'm going to digest 1ug of genomic DNA with RsaI, hybridize the probes, then pull them out with streptavidin magnetic beads. There's about 5700 Mbp in a diploid cell if that helps. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Mike

Hi all, I have a question about how drug dose relates to receptor binding efficiency. I have attached a photo of some peptides designed as novel MC1R receptor agonists from the following paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320823039_Design_of_MC1R_Selective_g-MSH_Analogues_with_Canonical_Amino_Acids_Leads_to_Potency_and_Pigmentation The question is this: Substance 5 on the list shows an EC(50) on the MC1R receptor of 4.5nM, whilst substance 15 shows an EC(50) of 0.01nM. Does this effectively mean that substance 5 requires a 450 fold dose to match the potential effect of substance 15, assuming that pharmacokinetics are roughly equa…

I have searched some information for the mechanism of caffeine action. What's turned out is that there are many explanations. I'm quite confused if which explanation is more accurate. 1) Caffeine resembles adenosine, the chemical slowing down the nerve activity to produce drowsiness and caffeine binds to adenosine receptors to prevent the action of adenosine, keeping us awake. 2)the size and shape of caffeine is similar to that of phosphodiesterase(PDE).When caffeine is introduced to the body, it can block the receptors for phosphodiesterase. When phosphodiesterase binds with a cell, it can then break down cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), which lead…

I just had mine, black, with no regrets—and I plan on having at least four more by the end of the night. Any thoughts on this? Is there any molecular biologist, geneticist, chemist, or whoever, who wants to chime in on that news article and explain why or why not the California judge’s ruling is harsher than it should be? Was it reasonable, or does it seem that there’s a motive behind passing the law that was passed (Proposition 65)? The dr in the article says odds aren’t likely that someone would develop cancer from drinking coffee (I guess because of this negative feedback effect—is it?—that coffee has on the liver as it detoxifies the liver after it’s …

Whenever I watch videos like this… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfYf_rPWUdY …I’m amazed, and a little skeptical about the ability of these bio-molecules to magically find their perfect “soul-mates” – all, by nothing more than a lot of random, Brownian jostling, and ostensibly, good luck. Given that the apparent basis for the attraction between any two molecules is typically non-covalent bonds, and given the vast number of other similar (and non-similar) molecules to be found floating in the inter-cellular milieu, I would think it would be very common for “less-than-perfect soul-mates” to clog up the works. I.e., to get in the way, and prevent …

I hope this is the correct Forum for this question. 24 yr old male, 240lbs, drank 6 12oz regular beers. Five hours after first drink, 2 1/2 hrs after last beer he was involved in a motor vehicle accident. He was not injured but was trapped for about 10-15 minutes before help came. After help arrived, they called 911 and went to their truck to get something to pry the door open. While doing this, the subject yelled that he was smelling gasoline. When they turned around, they saw the truck erupt in flames. They ran to the truck, kicked in the back glass and reaching through fire they managed to pull the now unconcious subject out and tossed him to the ground where he re…

My name is Calvin Harris, and my partner Nathan DuPont and I are currently working on a research project at the Oconomowoc High School in aim of finding a more efficient way to detect Shiga Toxin producing E. Coli (referred to as STEC) in infected water and food. We have created a survey to collect data from those who are more knowledgeable than us about STEC. This survey will allow us to gage how important this product could be and how successful past attempts at a product were. Feel to email me, Calvin Harris, or Nathan with any questions or information. Emails: Calvin - harrical000@stu.oasd.org Nathan - nathan.dupont01@gmail.com Survey Link: h…

A calcium channel is an ion channel which shows selective permeability to calcium ions. What is the role of the Ca ions? According to this paper deranged Ca(2+) signaling may play an important role in SCA3 pathology . SCA 3 is called Machado joseph disease...I have SCA7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19036964

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. The internet says that oxalate in food can bind with a variety of minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, etc), but calcium oxalate gets most of the attention. I would like to know whether oxalate has a preference for binding with calcium, or if it is equally likely to bind with any other suitable mineral that happens to be present. Thank you.

I've read in my book "Cytobiochemistry" that oxygen from -OH accepts ADP-Ryb in ADP-Ribosylation. There are also written that phosphoserine can be acceptor for ADP-Ryb. But how if in phosphoserine there are no hydroxy group?

Hello! I'm a mad health scientist trying to heal myself & others, and I'm using Vitamin C, and Potassium Triiodide (aka Lugol's Iodine http://alternativa-za-vas.com/en/index.php/clanak/article/lugols-solution). When I drop the iodine solution into water, it taints it distinctly (like a greenish violet (one of them- I'm colorblind)). When I follow with ascorbic acid, it goes white. Obviously a reaction. Does mixing reduce the anti-biotic properties of iodine? Does mixing reduce the usefullness of vitamin-C? I feel these are important questions for the health of our culture, and I wonder if they've been explored yet. Iodine is considered one of the top …

Hello everyone, I have a question regarding pyruvate carboxylase deficiency. Namely, I'd like to know which of the aminoacids is most likely to provide glucose production? I'm arguing with my friends about it. One of them says it's alanine but for me that's the one aminoacid that cannot be transformed to oxaloacetate from pyruvate... What do you think? Other ideas were Phenyloalanine, Valine, Arginine and LEucine (but this one is not glucogenic so I would odd this out) I'm really looking forward to hearing some professional voices

I would like to measure different enzyme activities in centrifuged pig kidney homogenate. I get out of range errors at 450 nm. The samples are still reddish after centrifugation. Is there a way to remove hemoglobin without deactivating / removing enzymes? Thanks!

When the Krebs' cycle is too slow to consume all of the acetyl CoA from beta-oxidation, some of the acetyl CoA is used to make ketone bodies. When the three ketone bodies, acetone, acetoacetate, and beta-hydroxybutyrate are in abnormally high concentrations, this is ketosis. Type I (and occasionally Type II) diabetics suffer from diabetic ketoacidosis, in which the blood pH lowers (there are three grades of severity). What is unclear to me is the cause of the lowered pH. My working hypothesis is that the acid may be generated when the fatty acyl esters are oxidized to acetyl CoA (beta-oxidation), because each round should produce one proton. When I looked at the pa…

Hello, which amount of caffeine impairs recovery after acute noise exposure. Adenosine receptors are known to change the oxygen supply. Can moderate doses e.g. 300mg of caffeine impair the cochlea recovery after noise? thank you once already

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since Ive mad an appearance on here, sorry! I finally got my microscope light working again and started looking at some preprepared slides I had. I have one of the epidermis to an onion bulb as they have pretty large easy to see cells. Upon observing it looked like one cell has two nuclei!? Am I right on this? Is it normal? Why? The first image attached is the normal one with the cell of interest in the center of the circle. The second image has been enhanced to see the two red spots easier. Thanks.

I have a question about units. In reading papers around the development of new drug compounds (specifically antifungals), I've noticed that many seem to express and compare values such as IC50's in units of mass / volume (e.g. ug / mL) instead of molarity. I have also found this to be the case when I attend group meetings over in the biology labs I work in. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, as surely it's more appropriate to compare inhibitory activities of different molecules on a per mole basis rather than per gram. Does anyone know if there's a reason for this, or is it just some sort of historical carryover?

I've been think about something/things. The brain is the core of us, our hearts stomavh, and other organs simply fuel it. Sooo what if you put a brain in a jar.. Obviously you'd have to give it the necessary material to survive like oxygen, fuel, and anything else the brain needs. My question lies in whether or not the brain could be connected to machines such as a speaker mic and camera. Keep in mind this brain is alive, and I've already done research on brain transplants so I know removing the brain won't kill it and there is a very recent study of a man who was paralyzed given a technological chip to help him move. So I guess my question really is, does any…

Hi everyone, We are experiencing now some problems in the lab with our cells (including HeLa). They are not growing normally. They are clumping and leaving some blank spaces in the dishes. They are not so much adherent either. This is weird because a priori we did not change anything in the way we are culturing them. Do you think the cause may be the serum or the trypsin? Do you have any idea?

I was wondering what are some differences between embryonic carcinoma cells, embryonic stem cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts and why some papers choose one over the other? Thanks

When you pronounce the entire word and when do you pronounce the acronym or abbreviation? The questions I am interested in are: When reading a paper silently and an abbreviation (abbr.) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the abbreviated form? When reading a paper silently and an acronym (ACN) is defined, does one continue to pronounce the entire word, or substitute the acronym? If, when reading a paper, one substitutes the acronym rather than repeating the full word every time it is read, do they risk learning the acronym but forgetting the full word? When one is speaking to another does one pronounce t…

Hey, Disclaimer: This is my first post so I hope this is in the right section. I'm doing an experiment on different anticoagulants by comparing how they effect different specific clotting factors (measured via a factor activity assay). I have 2.5 mg of apixaban (in tablet form) and I wanted to make a stock solution out of it and then use 5 different final concentrations ranging from say 0 - 800 ng/ml i.e. 50ng/ml ... 150 ng/ml etc and use these solutions to spike normal plasma samples. Then I will perform the activity assays.I have only have a limited supply of the anticoagulants in tablet forms and was wondering how I could make the final concentrations i.e. the sto…

I'm growng cyanobacteria on agar plates using BG110 media. Does anyone know of a specific protocol for DNA extraction when using agar? Will contamination by agar inhibit or affect the PCR or DNA extraction at all? References?

I have been reading Cox and Nelson's Principles of Biochemistry, 6th ed., Chapter 19. I have some questions about the two regions of the thylakoid membrane. In one portion of the chapter, then refer to the stacks as grana and the non stacked regions as stromal lamellae. They seem to use appressed membranes synonymously with grana and nonappressed membranes synonymously with stromal lamellae. It also looks as if the phosphorylation of LHC-II-OH (light harvesting complex II) causes it to un-appress the membrane nearby, and when LHC-II-OPO32- is dephosphorylated, the surrounding membrane is appressed again. Is this correct? Are there any subtleties in the language I sho…