Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Garrod's quadret

Let's start with Archibald Garrod. Not that he's who turned me into Biochem. Just that he's mentioned in the first page of harper textbook - the one that we consider standard.
Ok. So he is a doctor who does research - like i want to be. And he would learn from Gregor mendel's work and turn his attention into 4 diseases - alkaptonuria, cystinuria, pentosuria, and albinism (no, not albinuria). These, he discovered, had a genetic basis. May be that's why he's called the father of modern genetics. Inborn errors of metabolism, these 4, are called Garrod's quadret.
And while skimming through his wikipedia entry i found that one of his 3 sons died in Spanish flu, one pandemic that spread after first world war. Guess who's the culprit virus, after i tell you, the second wave of this hit us in the new millennium. Yes, H1N1
(A little background?
Influenza virus uses hemagglutin to bind to sialic acid in glycoproteins of cell membranes, then neuraminidase to cleave the acid and leave the cell. H5N1 is more common in birds (avian flu). Does not spread from human to human, but people who catch it suffer. The swine type is our H1N1. it spreads through swine, and humans.)
so, Garrod.

Activation energy

This particular night, after a set of internal exams were over, i set out into the internet to relieve myself from the pressure of having to read according to a fixed curriculum. And i did this exact search in Google - "the Medical Biochemistry Blog". To my surprise there was no blog of that name! ("The <subject> blog" is a very common title, one of the first ones that are taken)
i came to the url which belongs to this blog now hoping to find someone to have registered it without actually posting, but i was wrong again.

I know the reasons why it is tough to find medical students blogging
1. "blog? Do you mean a block? Or a clot?"
2. "Excuse me, but i have an exam coming up in 2 months. If i don't start preparing now, wait, i don't have time to finish the sentence"

with that in the solution, and with no catalyst, will this reaction proceed forwards? Only the atoms know!