Hey All!
I am wondering if anyone out there is interested in scientific research, particularly medical research. I am applying to grad schools this year, right here in Canada, probably the US and possibly Europe, and I'd love to get to know other grad students on the SG website. Please let me know about your research, and what school you are attending. I am interested mainly in Human Genetics (especially gene therapy!), and I really like Pharmacology as well (especially anything related to drug design), but really anything related to scientific research, whether medically-oriented or not, is likely to interest me a lot, so please do share! If you have any suggestions regarding potential grad schools and/or research supervisors you think might be a good fit for me, please let me know.
A little bit about my own Honours research. I can't give away too many details, but basically we are looking at domain-domain interactions in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR), a membrane channel involved in chloride and bicarbonate ion secretion across epithelial cell membranes, and which is linked to Cystic Fibrosis. The channel is activated in a phosphorylation-dependent manner, by a rearrangement of the receptor domains, which effectively opens the channel. The channel is comprised of 3 domains: a Front Half, a Back Half, and a regulatory domain (RD). When inactivated, the RD binds weakly to the rest of the receptor. Upon activation, the RD binds the rest of the receptor more tightly, and at differential binding sites. We are interested in whether the RD binds preferentially to the Front Half or Back Half of the channel upon activation. In order to determine this, we will be performing cell transfections to obtain cell clones expressing only the Front Half and RD, and other cell clones to express only the Back Half and RD. Using cAMP stimulation of the cell clones, and different fluorescent tagging proteins for the Front/Back Half, we will assess domain-domain interaction with a confocal microscope.
Once we know this, further research would allow the determination of the exact binding sites on the receptor, both before/after activation. So hopefully this gives the reader a sense of exactly how nerdy I am, and how passionate about research I am as well.
Please do share your research interests/activities, my fellow nerds!
Cheers!
I am wondering if anyone out there is interested in scientific research, particularly medical research. I am applying to grad schools this year, right here in Canada, probably the US and possibly Europe, and I'd love to get to know other grad students on the SG website. Please let me know about your research, and what school you are attending. I am interested mainly in Human Genetics (especially gene therapy!), and I really like Pharmacology as well (especially anything related to drug design), but really anything related to scientific research, whether medically-oriented or not, is likely to interest me a lot, so please do share! If you have any suggestions regarding potential grad schools and/or research supervisors you think might be a good fit for me, please let me know.
A little bit about my own Honours research. I can't give away too many details, but basically we are looking at domain-domain interactions in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR), a membrane channel involved in chloride and bicarbonate ion secretion across epithelial cell membranes, and which is linked to Cystic Fibrosis. The channel is activated in a phosphorylation-dependent manner, by a rearrangement of the receptor domains, which effectively opens the channel. The channel is comprised of 3 domains: a Front Half, a Back Half, and a regulatory domain (RD). When inactivated, the RD binds weakly to the rest of the receptor. Upon activation, the RD binds the rest of the receptor more tightly, and at differential binding sites. We are interested in whether the RD binds preferentially to the Front Half or Back Half of the channel upon activation. In order to determine this, we will be performing cell transfections to obtain cell clones expressing only the Front Half and RD, and other cell clones to express only the Back Half and RD. Using cAMP stimulation of the cell clones, and different fluorescent tagging proteins for the Front/Back Half, we will assess domain-domain interaction with a confocal microscope.
Once we know this, further research would allow the determination of the exact binding sites on the receptor, both before/after activation. So hopefully this gives the reader a sense of exactly how nerdy I am, and how passionate about research I am as well.
Please do share your research interests/activities, my fellow nerds!
Cheers!