Connecting Past Knowledge 2

I have found connecting past knowledge learned in my science courses to the biochemistry knowledge I am obtaining now interesting, but what I find especially interesting is connecting my new biochemistry knowledge to not just other science courses, but connecting it to information I learn about in the workplace.
For example, I shadow a neurologist at the Faulkner Hospital in Boston one day a week and many people come to see him for migraines. He routinely prescribes them an "old fashion" antidepressant. He calls them 'old fashion' because they have been on the market for years and years and use the same basic principle, which thanks to biochemistry I now understand. Migraines can be due to many reasons, but one main reason is lack of serotonin. These old-fashioned antidepressants, in low doses (doses much lower than the dose to treat depression,) can increase serotonin in the brain and prevent migraines. I know understand the biochemistry theory of amino acids and SSRI's, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, that we learned in class and how they prevent the uptake of serotonin leading to a higher mental state in depressed patients when taken at the correct dosage, or in low doses prevent migraines by increasing serotonin in the brain.
Another connection I was able to make between Biochemistry and my work/internship involves prostaglandins and stroke. Many patients that we see have had strokes, and the neurologist always makes sure they take a daily dose of aspirin and I never truly understood why. Now, thanks to my new Biochemistry knowledge of lipids and fatty acids, I understand that aspirin is a prostroglandin inhibitor, so it inhibits the formation of blood clots that can reach the brain and potentially cause a stroke.
I also was able to connect my new understanding of proteins and amino acids to my previous nutrition knowledge, and everyday grocery shopping. Quinoa, a grain that can be purchased at most Whole Foods super markets is referred to as a 'complete protein', and now through biochemistry I see that it is complete because it has all 20 common amino acids, which doesn't happen in nature very often in one single source of food. I now realize what an important role amino acids have in my life and functions of my body, and now because of that, I buy Quinoa almost every week.

Biochemistry website

The Biochemistry website I chose was http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/. I chose this specific biochemistry website because it has to deal with medical biochemistry, which is extremely interesting to me since I wish to use my knowledge of biochemistry to pursue a job in the medical field. It also has many useful applications to our class, for example in lecture we have talked about sickle cell anemia, MAOI's (Monoamine oxidase inhibitors), Histinde in allergies, and PKU disorder which for the most part can all be found in detail on this site. It also goes into many 'pop culture' topics that have to do with biochemistry that can include: healthy diets, the obseity epidemic, and muscle biochemistry; which are all topics that many Americans have a growing interest in.
Another helpful aspect of this website are the diagrams. I feel that many websites that cover biochemistry topics can be confusing, this website helps to break down the bulk of the challenging topics, and gives useful images to help demonstrate the topics and how they incorporate the different biochemistry aspects. You can also subscribe to the page so that you can be updated on the new information posted onto it.

Connecting knowledge with past knowledge.

Since I have been a biology major at UNH, I how come to see how important proteins in Biology. Biochemistry in particular has made me realize just how crucial proteins are, and the functions that they have in organisms. In the past I knew that amino acids were the building blocks of most things in life, but I didn't know the extent of the levels of protein structure. Now I know about there primary structure, and which is the certain amino acid structure; and that there are secondary structures. There are also tertiary structures, which are the overall structure of the protein which can be seen through X Ray crystallography, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. More specifically I know the structure of each basic amino acid: they have an amino group, carboxy group, side chain group, and alpha carbon. I can also tell if there are R group is polar or nonpolar, acidic or basic. I also know about the bonds that form it, for example the peptide bonds, and how they limit the possible orientations of the peptide backbone in protein. I also know about the L-form amino acids. In the past during Chemistry class, I learned what compromised a hydrogen bond, but I didn't realize how important they can be to certain biochemical structures, for example in the a-helix, the hydrogen bonds are parallel to the helix axis, and stabilize the protein ribbon structure.
In the past I learned the pH scale, the values it had from 1-10 and that more acidic things had lower pH, and more basic things had higher pH. Now I know about how amino acids ca be titrated. I can also determine the pKa values from the amino acid structure and curves. I also realize how we can choose buffers from amino acids, by looking to see if they have a suitable pKa, and the rule of thumb that the pKa should be plus or minus 1 pH unit fro the pH of the reaction. I have also been able to connect that buffer system to things I learned in Anatomy and Physiology about blood, like how the blood buffer system works. Thus far, I have enjoyed learning how Biochemistry impacts the systems and processes that I've been learning about all of these years in biology, chemistry, anatomy, immunology and serology, body fluids, and so on. The study of biochemistry allows me to further extrapolate how the subjects relate and overlap.  I look forward to gaining even more knowledge about how biochemistry influences, and relates to all the past knowledge I have acquired through my studies.