theSciencyStuff

The citric acid cycle is one of the central logistical hub in our metabolism. It provides oxidative breakdown for organic substances, energy by releasing CO2 and H2O from Acetyl-CoA and so on. There are 10 basic steps to the cycle and its goal is to catalyze the condensation of Oxalacetate to Citrate. I will list the  intermediates of this reaction and their respective enzymes , as well as their components : Citrate  + Aconitase -> cis-Aconitate   ( H20) cis-Aconitate + Aconitase ->  Isocitrate    ( H20) Isocitrate  + Isocitrate-dehydrogenase -> Oxalsuccinate    (NAD+, NADH) Oxalsuccinate  + Isocitrate-dehydrogenase -> Alpha-ketoglutaric-acid   (CO2) Alph a-ketoglutaric-acid  + alpha-ketoglutarate-dehydrogenase-complex -> Succinyl-CoA   (CoA, NAD+, CO2, NADH/H+) Succinyl-CoA  + Succinyl-CoA-Synthase -> Succinate  (GDP, ADP, GTP, ATP) Succinate...

I have spent almost 5 days reading through prep sheets about the fundamentals of Virology for my exam, which was scheduled for this morning. To be specific, this morning, 3 hours earlier than I anticipated. I even had time to bake brownies (or so I thought) -___- But no harm's done, it is actually an additional Masters course (6 credits) and it certainly was very interesting for me, as I am a sucker for diseases and death-bringing particles which utilize our cellular machinery for their own evil plans. Let's get down to this, I will be reading up on my own blog post in 6 months again, when I am registering for this exam again. By the way, I am fucking mad that I misread the time. Basics of Virology There are 4 simple shapes of viruses, here depicted with my fabulous drawing skills: The two shapes above ( A and B ) are naked, without an additional protective shell - A as icosahedral naked sphere built up from protomers with the nucleic acid inside, and B as t...

I always had major problems when it came down to calculating the components for solutions and buffers. I don't know why, it should be as easy as A B C but I just couldn't do it. Now I have found the solution, a formula Or rather two :) I hope this can help you out - this should take about 5min to read and understand! 1. Method You need:  Startconc . (initial concentration),  Targetconc . (concentration of your target solution),  Targetvol . (volume of target solution) X here is the amount of the stock solution which we need, in millilitres. Of course you can reconstruct the formula to suit your needs, in the case that you are looking for another attribute than X 2. Method You need:  Startconc .,  Startvol . (volume in which the concentration of the stock solution is kept),  Targetconc .,  Targetvol . X is again, the amount which you need, in milllilitres, while A and B are just variables :)

Since in 2015 the Biochem exam is around the corner in January, we are getting back with the metabolism pathways in our body. Maybe this is also a good way of keeping the fat level over the holidays in check :p But this post is not about fats - it's Gluyconeogenesis!! After investing 4 ATP and 2 GTP you will get glucose, this process takes part inside the Mitochondrium and the Cytoplasm The metabolic pathway which results in the generation of glucose  from non-carbohydrate substrates . These substrates which are pyruvate , lactate , glycerol and glucogenic AAs . This pathway is one of the core ones, which monitor our blood glucose levels, to avoid hypoglycemia. What you have to keep in mind is, that you can't just reverse glycolysis - there were some irreversible steps made in that pathway!!! First Step: Carbolization and de-Carbolization Enzymes: Pyruvat Carboxylase , PEP Carboxy kinase Components: Pyruvat , Oxalacetat , Phosphoenol-pyruvat (PEP) ...

Hey guys - although we entered into Biochemistry with the post about Glycolysis   I have a little summary here, what metabolism in general is going to be for me, during this semester. "Metabolism is the summed up lot of chemical reactions in our bodily cells, which we living organisms need to extract energy (in form of food and minerals) to perform actions, grow, heal or improve our physical self." Because energy seldom comes in the form our cells can use it right away, we need processes to breakdown bigger chunks - catabolic processes - i.e. Glycolysis (greek for sugar-splitting), I mean this example is awesome, because stuff is literally being broken down. And also energy is won from this reaction. On the other hand side, we are not just a machine that consumes and spits out product 1:1 Our body has the possibility to store energy for later on (yeah, shake that fat belly - don't worry it's potential energy is over 9000). ANYWAY. So called anabolic processes relea...

We are starting into a new semester and that means I am getting into Biochemistry II with you guys. Main Topic this semester will be the metabolism and from experience I can say, the most difficult part is to remember all the different steps in the many metabolic cycles our body needs to stay functioning. Glycolysis happens generally in 10 steps and is the process of breaking down glucose into smaller sugars The reaction itself takes place in the cytosol and after investing 2 ATP you get 4 ATP and 2 NADH First Step: Phosphorylation of Glucose Enzymes: Hexokinase aka Glucokinase Components: Glucose , ATP Hexokinase catalyses under exclusion of water the two components glucose + ATP , the product is now negatively charged and therefor caught in the cytosol Second Step: Isomerization Enzymes: Glucosephosphate-Isomerase Components: Glucose-6-Phosphate This reaction is essential for step four, because only from fructose you can derive two C3-molecules. Without isomerization, we would ...

For Biochemistry I we had to learn all essential amino acids by heart, sort them according to their properties and be able to draw all of them. For quick starts I recommend the Amino Acid Quiz by Sporcle on the web - it's like a memory game, where you can measure how much time you need to remember the names when you see the structures. This helped me major at the beginning. When you need to draw all of them, I can only recommend you to do so. I was able to distinguish all AAs after my 5th round of drawing them, it's really not that difficult, it's even easier when you start drawing them sorted in groups - the properties I mentioned before Non polar side chains: Polar side chains: Electrically charged acidic AAs: Electrically charged basic AAs: My best time for the memory quiz I mentioned at the beginning of this post was 45 seconds... Can you beat me ? :p