( ^_^）o自自o（^_^ ）

Anonymous asked: Hey! How 'bout nanoparticulate "disguises" for allografts? Particles that would bind to and "sheath" the targetted foreign tissue to present a non-antigenic surface to the host immune system? If it worked, you might not have to immuno-suppress transplant patients to keep them from rejecting their transplanted organs. That would be cool.

Haha, I am by no means, an expert in the study of nanoparticles/nanotechnology, so I can’t say whether or not this would be feasible. A lot of my summer work will be based on known existing biomarkers that have been somewhat (if not significantly) tested, but the current nanoparticles/synthesis used is not optimal, or produces inconsistent results.

It sounds like it sort of applies the general idea, so it could theoretically work. However, nanoparticles aggregating onto a surface of such size (an entire organ, or mass of cells?) seems like it’d look like a giant elephant trying to hide under a blanket. I’m not sure using nanoparticles to such a large scale would actually work because size is very important to determining clearance from the body.

HOWEVER, you could theoretically develop nanoparticles containing chelated chemicals (medicinal treatments, chemical inhibitors) that could deliver it to the site of foreign tissue and inhibit the activation of receptors that would attract macrophages. That would probably inhibit the immune response to that area without having to completely immunosuppress transplant patients.

-head explodes-

NOTE: I could be completely wrong, but I’m just basing on what I understand. haha! I might be able to learn more and answer better by the end of summer; regardless, our lab focuses on studying the cardiovascular and stroke model, so maybe I’ll never know the answer. hahahah 

Anonymous asked: Awesome summer gig! Controlled regional nonuniformity in the surface properties of self-organizing nanoparticles will surely be useful in the realization of the dogbilled pandypus, which is essential to my goal of World Domination. (All who have previously failed to dominate the world lacked a dogbilled pandypus. Coincidence? Maybe, but why risk it?) If you change your mind about med school, the position of Minion-in-Chief is yours for the asking. Seriously, I'm proud to stalk you! ☺

lol, are you building an army to fight back against the oppressive nature of society? Or do you plan to establish a military state run by fluffy animals with beaks? :P

Hahaha, if I do end up changing my mind about med school, it’ll definitely be because I decided to go into research instead. Maybe I can help you rule the world part time? LOL 

:D

My UWP 101 prof handed back our essays in class today and asked me to wait 5 minutes after class ended. I was hella freaking out thinking I totally didn’t answer the prompt/got an F or something.

But then I get my paper, and on it, it says “GREAT Job here. This is very well written and approaches the topic with sophistication + creativity (yada yada). Can you send me an electronic copy of this so I can use it as an example in a future class?”

So I wait for a little bit, and she says “I really want to consider submitting this for Prized Writing. (http://prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/). You should fix up the paper a bit and re-submit it to me.”

LOL. My head is so full of hot air right now that I could float away into space. It makes me feel a lot better about the work I did when I was a writing tutor earlier in the year. At least I sorta knew what I was doing then!

defaultbixface asked: BTW, Sounds super legit. SO PROUD OF YOU <3 ANd I'm glad you're happy!

Thanks! I lab you, my fellow stripper EMT/LoL feeder/chaperone/cray cray buddy! :D

defaultbixface asked: how do you engineer nanoparticles that will specifically bind to the various biomarkers for stroke for imaging and diagnostic purposes?

lol, from my understanding (I’m not an expert - yet!):

There are a lot of things that activate when a part of the body becomes diseased. So say someone has a stroke - at the site where cells are damaged/affected, receptors will activate on the surface to signal macrophages to come and bind to the region/clear it up/try to remove the antigens that are affecting the cells. Those activated receptors are specific to the cell and (I think) are unique to the type of disease that occurs, which are the “biomarkers”.

Our goal is to synthesize nanoparticles that mimic the properties of those macrophages so they can bind to those same specific activated receptors (“biomarkers”). Which is more or less, very tedious, since the body’s immune response will remove these from the bloodstream if it’s detected as an antigen. So a lot of trial and error goes into modifying the nanoparticles to be able to demonstrate a specificity/ability to bind to those receptors as well as being able to reach the location in the first place hahhaa.

The nanoparticles have different properties so they can be used as contrast agents (they will highlight certain areas like in an MRI scan). So theoretically, if you make the “perfect” nanoparticle that can bind to the stroke-activated receptors, you can locate all the areas in the body that have been affected by the stroke.

That helps a lot with trying to understand how cells are affected by disease states, especially when trying to characterize all the biomarkers for something like a stroke. Better understanding will lead to possible leads/ideas in how to prevent them from happening, treat them, etc.

Which would be great for diagnostic purposes, especially if someone could develop something that could cure those damaged cells :D

I wonder if people realize that I only say with “totes” when they’ve obviously said something stupid/something that annoys/offends me and I could care less about thinking of something witty to respond with.

Ex:

Person: Ew mah gawd, what is this that you’re drinking? Did you put AIDs in it or something?

Response: Totes.

lol. Random thought

RESEARCHHHH

Received my summer presearch project from my PI yesterday. I was originally just going to work on synthesizing different nanoparticles and learning how to modify their surface properties to maximize uptake in mice cells.

Now, she wants me to engineer nanoparticles that will specifically bind to the various biomarkers for stroke for imaging and diagnostic purposes. Then I’ll actually test them on stroke-induced mice to see if what I designed works. Oh my goodness, my brain had an orgasm just thinking about how legit this is.

HAHAHA