Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Hi all, Am trialing an amylase starch experiment with variable pH for the students and it is causing major angst. TRIAL 1. BUFFERS - I made buffers of pH 3-11 using the CLEAPSS recipes (http://mityeast.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/83078368/http---www.cleapss.org.uk-attachments-article-0-RBPrint.pdf) page 21. I tested the buffers using a 2-point calibrated probe with standardised buffers 4 and 10. All buffers were within .2 of the desired value. AMYLASE - Used a laboratory sourced supply which is apparently CLARASE G fungal alpha amylase. Made 9 x 1.0% solutions using each buffer. STARCH - Used laboratory grade soluble starch for idiometry. Made 9 x 0.5…

Dear all, I just registered and hope you guys can help me with your knowledge. If anyone could help me with some part of this or give me an idea what I have to look at to understand this, it would be very much appreciated: I'm interested in the drug phenelzine (Nardil). There are now studies showing it's usefulness in traumatic brain injury, mitochondrial functional preservation and several other diseases/problems, which all seem related to it's ability to scavenge several radical molecules (aldehydes etc.) This opens several questions to me: 1) Does it's reactivity also mean it will readily react with some proteins etc., just like the compounds it will react with for …

Hi everyone, I need help understanding minerals in water and how absorption in the body works form any generous person / people willing to help. A little background on why I need this: I have a little website on which I wrote an article. I got a comment on the article which goes beyond my scope of understanding about the biochemical interactions in the body. I have put the link to the article below. I would like to emphasise that I have NOT done this for promotional purposes and ask for clemency from the site moderators. It is quiet a long article so I apologise in advance but I really need the help so I can respond effectively. The article: http://theorga…

It's great that modern medicine can reduce HIV viral load to undetectable levels. However, I'm pretty opposed to their campaign of "U=U means you can't transmit the virus to your partner (...or partners *mind slowly begins to implode*)". This to me is the last thing you should be "OKing" with someone who is still HIV POSITIVE. IAPAC revealed a study that within 48 hours of not taking anti-viral medication, viral load rises to detectable levels. Whose to say that SOME people won't forget to take their medication for a duration of time. Why do you think we have MERSA AND VRE? Make sure you take your birth control EVERYDAY. Meanwhile thousands o…

The DNA is constructed by a double chain build up of nucleotides. Each chain is constructed by a huge number of nucleotides. A nucleotide is build up of a connection of an amino base a five carbon sugar and a phosphate. These nucleotides are connected by hydrogen bonds. A hydrogen bond is a chemical bond which can be build by hydrogen and partners like oxygen, nitrogen or other electronegative atoms or molecules. If the temperature of blood rises, haemoglobin is releasing oxygen easily. For example then muscles can do work. The pH value of blood decreases. It is often mentioned that for example the DNA in blood cells has a melting point. Thus a low pH value pr…

The basic idea behind the normal work of a body is maintaining the pH value in the different regions of the body within its normal, specific ranges. A chronic disease is under this assumption the result of a more or less wrong pH value of the affected organs, regions and/or blood in the body. That’s the common belief. I will introduce the theory that the pH value of blood is the pH value which controls every part of the Human body. It ‘interacts’ with all the other pH values of the body and it is by far the most important pH value since blood is with the exception of the corneas of the eyes distributed throughout the whole body. The pH value is a measurement of the …

Hello, I'm doing Sanger sequencing and I'm getting some strange results that I've now reproduced at least 4 times. Every time I read my plate in the sequencer, my results look much better when I read it again the following day with absolutely no modifications to the plate. That is, multiple wells that were once negative and didn't show any signal, suddenly showed up as positive for my target on a re-read of the same plate on the next day. I'm using the BigDye xterminator kit with m13 primers after pcr. Does anyone know why this could be happening? I am at a complete loss as to what is going on. Thanks in advance

The packing of drugs into mitochondria for administration and delivery to the site of action in vivo could be efficient as it could avoid immune response being an endogenous nanoparticle and be membrane permeable with improved drug lifetime. Attachment of mAbs to the outer membrane may direct it to the desired cells/site of action. This method may be also possible for gene therapy. Is this method feasible or at least a worthwhile topic of research?

This may sound like a stupid question, but why don't tRNA and rRNA get translated into protein? (I know what role tRNA and rRNA play in cells but what's stopping a ribosome attaching to them etc?) Do the Bacterial ones not have Shine-Dalgarno sequences? Do the Eukaryotic ones not have a 5' cap? Do they quickly fold into their tertiary structure and not expose any binding sites for translation to begin?

Can anyone please help ,by explaining how ribosomes are synthesis in the nucleus?

Hey, I made during my practical year in the pharmacology some experiments and now I have to write a Master Thesis. Now I have a question to clear: I used a Krebs-Ringer Solution (contains also bicarbonat) and gassed the solution with Carbogen ( 5% CO2 95% O2) for 30 minutes. After that I added a HEPES-buffer. The buffer is for a physiological pH of 7,4. My cells consumpted during my experiments more or less O2, so that I gassed before with the Carbogen. I got the protokol by my professor and didnt asked a question. Now while writing I read the following: HEPES is widely used in cell culture, largely because it is better at maintaining physiological pH despite changes i…

Hi, some help with this question would be much appreciated! What enzymes can digest cellulose? A: mammalian cellulase B: bacterial cellulase C: mammalian and bacterial cellulase

Is there any relationship between total resin binding capacity for a "target" molecule and when in a gradient elution that "target" molecule elutes off? In other words, if a molecule elutes off earlier in a gradient, is that an indication of lower binding capacity relative to a different target that would elute off higher in a gradient with the same conditions?

i wonder if anyone could offer some subtle insight, I have a set of standards of substance X with an appropriate standard curve constructed from this info. The sample of unknown concentration is diluted 10X and thus has produced a much smaller absorbance reading as expected, but I'm stuck on how to correct for this dilution as i'm not sure whether to; A) multiply the absorbance reading by 10 or B) multiply by 10 the figure from the point on the graph where the diluted absorbance reading is.

Dear forum members, I have a problem with understanding how base-stacking interactions contribute to the stability of dsDNA. My lack of understanding is probably caused by my insufficient knowledge of basic chemistry and I was wondering if anyone here can explain, in relatively layman's terms, what base stacking is and how it contributes to the stability of double-stranded DNA. The question is a bit longer because I would like to avoid getting answers that contain the type of information that prompted me to pose this question in the first place. So, here we go with my stupidity leak. In various resources (books, on-line sites, etc...) which describe the types of inter…

I'm very shocked to hear this, but apparently overdose on benzodiazipenes alone is fairly uncommon. I always figured it would lead to severe CNS depression and the person would stop breathing. However, this only happens in conjunction with other drugs being taken at the same time..namely alcohol. My question is, by what mechanism can these drugs NOT kill you? I know that alcohol increases the binding affinity of benzodiazipenes to receptors, thereby enhancing their effect...but still I cant wrap my head around the fact that you can't overdose on 500 mg of benzo's. ~EE

Mammals with excess adipose tissue are described as fat. Really, being overweight and/or obese is just a metabolic deficit, in which glycogen and triglycerides aren't being sufficiently used for energy. Overtime they build up in adipose cells, therefore increasing mass. Can the same thing happen to plants? Reduce the usage of a particular energy dense molecule, and instead just build it up in supply..therefore increasing mass? Perhaps obtain "excess" CO2? ~EE

When the stomach gets the food and start to digest it satiety hormones are been secreted thus telling us to stop eating correct? food stays in the stomach itself for about 3 to 4 hours which is the average time of satiety. when the food leaves the stomach it becomes chyme and goes to the small intestine . when the stomach is empty-meanning there is no food there,ghrelin is been produced ,telling us to start eating again. What i dont get is,the food leaves as chyme to the small intestine and emptying the stomach,but when that chyme goes into the small intestine hormones of satiety are been secreted as well there,telling us not to eat,but that contradicts the fact that when…

I have citrus sinensis 's peel extract. I wanna to test this on mouth's microorganisms. Does this test, works???

PLEASE ANYBODY HELP ME WITH THIS QUESTION..... It has been observed that for the DNA double helix melting,the value of ∆H (enthalpy change of denaturation) are 80 and 90 kcal/mole at 70°C and 80° C, respectively. Assuming that ∆Cp (constant pressure-heat capacity change) is independent of temperature, estimate ∆H associated with the denaturation of DNA at 37°C. This estimated value of ∆H (kcal/mole) is a. 27 b. 37 c. 47 d. 57

What do these bacteria have that can use oligosaccharides but we can't? What are the chemical pathways and byproducts?

Hello, I've got some doubts about the number of ATPs produced from the complete oxidation of fumarate...is it 15 or 12,5?Do I have to count NADPH? Fumarate -> Malate Malate -> Piruvate ( 1 NADPH=2,5 ATP) Piruvate-> Acetyl CoA (1 NADH=2,5 ATP) Acetyl CoA ->Krebs Cycle ( 10 ATP) 1 FADH2=1,5 ATP 1 NADH =2,5 ATP

Alrighty then, I need some excellent minds to help me out on this.. I am a SAR K9 handler and so scent theory is an addiction. We know the dog works of apocrine, subaceous glands, gaseous emissions, and skin rafts BUT, not specifically what they hone in on to make scent discrimination selections (i.e. following a single persons odor trail through the crowded streets etc)... Ok, so that is the background short as it may be.. Because scent/odor does not fall in a linear fashion but upwards, outwards, and tossed by environmental conditions.. Trying to understand where the scent/odor fell for human understanding is difficult when the dog goes meters (often many) off the …

It just always seemed weird how someone could heal after getting a broken bone, but it's somehow impossible to gain any amount of thickness on enamel.

ALT converts alanine to pyruvate using α-ketoglutarate. How is this reaction useful when α-ketoglutarate will anyway be converted to pyruvate? This is solely in the context of producing glucose from glucogenic amino acids. When amino acids are the only option, the body uses them but if they are going to need TCA cycle intermediates to produce other TCA cycle intermediates/pyruvate, I don’t see any net gain.