Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Friendfeed with be marked when term has finished. - Dr Alan Cann

You're welcome! - Zainab Chaudhary

Enhancers are short sequences of DNA that control the transcription of genes. Our current understanding of enhancers is not a rich one, but there are promising research efforts to uncover this. Enhancers have the ability to control the switching on or off of some genes. Eventually, they control which cells develop into kidney, liver, muscle cell, etc; in other words, they control cell differentiation. This article throws light on some new insights into how promoters are controlled, supposedly by particular chromatin marks which may be altered at different stages of the organism's development. It also stresses the importance of non-coding RNA sequences in facilitating the interactions of promoters and enhancers. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

I haven't got much to say this week. It's been all about wrapping up. I have submitted MB1031 pigments report and hope to score a good mark in it. On Friday, I received three pieces of assessed work (two MB1005 practicals and BS1009 essay) and must admit I was quite satisfied about all the grades. The week, or indeed the term, was fleeting and passed amazingly quickly. I feel I have learned a lot in this term, specially about physiology and membranes. Speaking of physiology, the ECG and blood pressure measurements in BS1006 practicals were instructive and enjoyable. Finally, I look forward to constructively utilize my time during the holiday and reflect the term's effort in the exams. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

In the MB1031 poster presentations assignment, my group had to research about depression and how the drugs used to treat it work. In our research, we found out about an important brain neurotransmitter (serotonin) that is involved in the regulation of mood in humans. Interestingly enough, serotonin has been shown to have an effect on the sexuality of mice in an experiment carried out in China. Published in nature only recently, the experiment showed that the lack of serotonin in male mice made them display a non-preferential sexual behaviour towards both sexes. I quite liked the Cambridge Professor's point of view about the matter, in which he stressed the importance of NOT drawing out conclusions from the experiment for a whole host of reasons, the most important of which is that humans are not sexually influenced by odour the way mice are. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

It's nice to see Dr Alan trying to vitalize enteries to MyDiary after it started to become a little boring. Following the guidelines, I will try to answer the questions one by one. Firstly, I would rate this week as 4/10. This is because I didn't properly use my time academically, although it's been quite an interesting one socially in terms of public lectures and sporting events with friends. I've had a little mishap though, with my friend Lipsos. He seems to have misunderstood some of my remarks. Although I made it clear to him it was a compliment, his sarcastic reply sounded like he thinks I've changed tone after noticing his anger. Although that hurt me a little bit because I am not that kind of person, I will try to remain friendly and sort this matter when I meet him. It is not in our best interests since we will be coursemates for the following years. Secondly, I am fairly satisfied about all aspects of this term with the exception that I haven't done much background reading of... more... - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This article highlights the concerns brought up in the MB1031 session about the spread of Cholera. While Cholera causes dehydration and diarrhoea, it is very simply treated by the replacement of lost body fluids (orally or intravenously). In places where natural disasters strike, it's hard to contain the disease. According to the article, there were no cases of cholera in Haiti for more than a century. Suddenly however, people are dieing day by day and it is estimated that by November 2011, the number of casualties from the disease would be about a million. It shows us the importance of things we take for granted, like clean water, clean food and proper sanitation. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This week hasn't been as nice as the preceding one. This is mainly due to the MB1031 poster assignment which I spent quite some time on, but was cancelled. In doing so, I didn't give much attention to the MB1004 presentation and came unprepared, so I wasn't satisfied about how I presented it. Less pessimistically however, I did enjoy the physiology practicals and found it instructive; always found the nervous system an interesting theme in human biology. I am anxiously waiting for the BS1009 practicals and essays which I have been regularly checking the pigeonholes for but haven't got them yet. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This has been a nice week for a number of reasons. Firstly, due to the less 'pressurized' timetable I now have the time to follow lecture content from books, and that greatly increases my understanding of topics. Secondly, the two talks we had to give improved my team work and presentation skills. I learned an important lesson this week, which is not to write out my entire talk and just read it to the audience; this may put them off. I try to maintain eye contact and speak without any notes. Although this may not be easy at the beginning, and may result in some embarrassing moments where I might just go blank, it will increase my confidence until I am able to cross the inevitable 'embarrassment' stage and thence fly freely in the world of confident public speaking or presenting. I wish we had 2 or 3 presentations every week. Thirdly, I had a big concern this week which is the fact that some lecturers assume that we already know some central concepts. I saw this most vividly in BS1006... more... - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

now i see!!! - Constantinos Lipsos

It was an incredible disappointment to learn that the MB1031 poster presentations session has been cancelled. I have really put in a lot of effort in learning and widely researching about the topic, neglecting tomorrow's MB1004 presentation. I was enthusiastic about the entire thing, only to be eventually let down. I guess I will use the knowledge I gained in my research (which was about depression) to deal with this 'depressive' mishap. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

I agree it's a shame that the poster session itself can't be held, but the effort on the poster is not wasted as (i) you still need to hand in the A4 version on Monday and (ii) the knowledge you gain is valuable for it's own sake - Dr Chris Willmott

Cancelled?? - Sha Tim Wai

Receptors are an important group of molecules in the biology of any organism. They carry out a whole host of functions, and are responsible for the chemical messaging between cells. In essence, it links the cell to its environment and allows interactions. As we saw in MB1004 Lecture 6, one of the functions of receptors is the receptor-mediated endocytosis of molecules. In lower organims, this could be the method of food intake. In this article, the authors outline a mechanism in Drosophila whereby receptor-mediated endocytosis helps in the uptake of lipids necessary for Oogenesis. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

It is not hard to notice that there has been a widespread interest among geneticists in knowing how genes are regulated. As explained today by Dr. Tata in MB1005, Transcription Factors (TFs) in the cytoplasm can control the expression of a gene. More interestingly, several genes can be controlled by a single TF, which is able to switch on or off an entire set of genes. This is important in development and differentiation of cells. For instance, a liver cell will switch ON only the genes that code for proteins in a liver cell, and not say muscle or nerve proteins. In this article, the authors try to study how regulators and TFs can interact with enhancers and enzymes (cytosine methylating enzymes), so that genes that are not needed by the cell are inactivated. They try to find out if this is done by direct interaction of TFs with promoters, or indirectly by intracellular messaging mechanisms. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

The first half of the second semester is now officially over. In this week, the BS1009 module got over. Regrettably, the MB1005 practical classes got over as well. What is not regrettable however, is the new timetable from next week onwards. There will be a lot of free time, which I hope to utilize in reading topics covered from recommended textbooks. Afterall, I think this is what learning is all about; reading books. I will focus most particularly on MB1005, understandably because I am a medical genetics student. I look forward to the upcoming physiology module and its practicals. The MB1031 poster presentation will be challenging for it's my very first time giving a presentation of this kind. Finally, I did well in this week's meiosis exam in terms of content, but the presentation wasn't particularly attractive. I am anxiously awaiting the feedback, in which I hope whoever is marking the paper overlooks the non-attractive handwriting and understandably appreciates the fact that time was not on my side! - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This week has been good in terms of the decrease in the pressure of workload. I managed to get many things done albeit being a little complacent in some days. Not much in terms of activities this week, but I found the #MB1031 about Genes and Behaviour enlightening. It is well-known that genes have a control on our phenotype and the way we look. However, I found it surprising to realize how genes are involved in behaviour and feelings. This, I would say, is a very dangerous and slippery slope because such a realization might possibly form the basis of justification of behaviour that might be deemed socially unacceptable. In addition, people might start thinking that their mental or academic potential (or generally what they can achieve in life) is linked to genes so there is nothing they can do to improve it. This is why I think the media should be cautious when presenting such information, and repeatedly emphasise that it is the interplay between genes and environment that shapes us,... more... - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Genes and environment; what is it that makes us who we are? It's a question I doubt humans will ever have enough information/understanding be to able to answer to a satisfactory level, because it's comprised of countless smaller questions: If we were genetically predisposed to a certain behavioural trait, would that make us more likely to show the trait in our phenotype, or is that down... more... - Zainab Chaudhary

The MB1004 lectures yesterday concentrated on how membrane potentials in neurons could be turned to action potentials, and how action potentials propagate along synapses. We saw how important myelin sheaths are in dramatically increasing the speed of action potentials along neurons. This article highlights the consequence of the breakage of this myelin sheath (demyelination) and how this affects the model organism (in this experiment rats). It helps in enhancing our understanding of the physiology of the myelin sheat, and thus leads to an increased understanding of nervous diseases associated with demyelination, which can then be exploiting in finding appropriate treatments. The article also speaks about how this mutation generates a splicing site in the intron of a mictochondrial transporter gene (a section that I did not fully comprehend!). - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

An overall positive week in terms of time management. Why I concentrate much on this is because I do not find much difficulty in academics, provided I devout the proper time to read and understand. Nevertheless however, some unexpected circumstances (like sickness for two days this week) returned me to square one after I was leading the race against revision. Regarding this week's activities, firstly I have attended the CABS talks from which I learned that the knowledge obtained by studying a degree in Medical Sciences may be exploited in a whole host of careers like communication, journalism, teaching, marketing, etc and not necessarily in a lab. Nonetheless, it didn't change my aspiration of being a researcher in a lab! But it was good to know. Secondly, I feel MB1004 started to get a bit more exciting and I can now appreciate the importance of membranes and ionic concentrations, and how they are related to medicine. Furthermore, the new lecturer of MB1005 is one funny and... more... - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

The idea of the CABS sessions isn't necessarily to change your aspirations but to broaden your awareness of what is possible. #uolbiocareers - Dr Chris Willmott

Concerning the Descriptive Statistics assignment, is it not easier to find what we're looking for (e.g. median, mean, etc.) by typing the formula in a cell (as in =AVERAGE(cell range)) rather than having to cut and paste, and then use the Date Analysis ToolPak ? - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

That's one way of doing it, but it means a lot of repeated operations (each with the possibility of error), the ToolPak is quicker overall. - Dr Alan Cann

It has always been taught to us in schools that chromosomes are made up of DNA, which have genes on them, each expressing a particular protein. It was interesting to hear from Prof Cundliffe in BS1015 last semester that the majority of genes in humans do not code for proteins. They are "junk genes" in his own words. These non-coding genes have been the subject of considerable interest in the last few years, as evidence emerged they are involved in regulation. Such ncRNA molecules may code for ribosomal units, transcription factors and transcriptional enhancers. Bacteria use such regulatory enhancers in response to environmental stumili, to promote survival. It may enhance the transcriptional promoters of certain genes (which increases their transcription, translation and activity) and switch off other genes. In this article, the authors review the recent advances in identifying the sequences and possible function of long ncRNAs in eukaryotes. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

A widespread and common misconception among people (including myself) is that cigarettes are only detrimental to health if smoked regularly for a long time. However, I was surprised to hear from Dr. Meacock in his MB1005 lecture concerning carcinogens, that tobacco smoke could affect people in just 15 minutes. In fact, according to this article, cigarettes have been proved to contain many carcinogens, some of which are mutagenic. In particular, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH for short) have been tested and shown to be metabilized in the body, by a pathway which eventually produces biochemicals that damage DNA. This is the first study to investigate the metabolic pahtway associated with a cigarette carcinogen, and should serve as a warning to smokers. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Well, not quite a busy week as anticipated. Firstly, I feel I have properly exploited 'inter-lecture' free time, but regrettably haven't done the same during evenings. Secondly, 'Antibiotics' lecture (MB1031) was good in that it introduced some fundamental medical concepts in microbiology. Speaking of microbiology, the practicals were enjoyable too, as were the MB1005 practicals using Drosophila's. Regarding the latter, I felt for the first time that we are doing a 'serious' genetics experiment by handling living organisms. Finally, I have attended a number of lectures (Wed afternoon) pertinent to careers after university (CABS) and others which I learned a lot from. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Don't forget your tags! #MB1005 #MB1031 #UoLBioCareers - Dr Chris Willmott

Just finished going through the MB1005 practicals for tomorrow. Is it just me, or everyone else, having a feeling of dizziness after going through these? There is too much information in those coloured papers, both theoretical and practical. I only wish we had a 'dry' practicals session where we get introduced to all this, so that the wet sessions are more meaningful than just following step-by-step procedures listed in the paper or briefly mentioned during the lab class. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Following the lecture by Prof. Andrew on human kinases, this is a link which is dedicated to the study of structures and functions of all the human kinase genes (Human Kinome) - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This is a very useful vidoe which animates the process of translation in a very simple and straight-forward way which makes it easy to understand. Seeing is believing! It helps change things from a bookish, theoretical view of the mechanism to an easier to remember, visual process. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

This week has been quite a busy one, understandably, since it is the first in the semester. In addition, we have to attend many lectures and the number of modules increased. Neverthless however, I like the fact that there has been study sessions introduced and the number of tutorial classes are more. Regarding practicals, I am not finding them hard although there is too much information. In particular, the MB1005 practicals timetable remains confusing in terms of the overlapping of experiments in some weeks, albeit I went through the practical timetable twice. Regarding other activities, I was fascinated by the 'Second Life' program of the SWIFT project which I took part in. I thought these sort of programmes would be developed in the near future, but to my surprise, they actually existed. One can lead a normal life, meet people, talk to them and see them, buy houses, and even conduct scientific practical classes online! Finally, I hope to exploit the time-management skills I learned last semester and put them into practice this semester, so that I could make the most out of the second term. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Remember to add the # for the module code, so it will come up in the searches for each module. You can edit your post and just add it in. - Dr Jo Badge from iPod

Put a hash and then write MyDiary and then put the date. Post that as your title and then write about your week in the comments section. - Roisin Thomas

Thanks. That really helped. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Your diary post was fine, well done - Dr Jo Badge from iPod

Following Dr. Meacock's lecture on dominance and recessiveness in alleles, this article outlines the consequences of such mutations. To begin with, the myelin sheath is a kind of insulator that is found around nerve cells. It helps to speed up the propagation of nerve impulses along axons. Demyelination is a process whereby this sheath is lost, and thus coordination between the brain and the peripheral nervous system is slowed down. This could be the result of a muation in a gene the encodes a Mg ion channel. Fortunately however, this faulty gene is recessive to the wild-type, dominant normal gene. As with many genetic diseases, Inheriting two recessive alleles will inevitably lead to the development of the disease. Speaking on a molecular level, the mutation occurs in a gene which encodes a Mg2+ ion channel in membrane receptor. As lectured in MB1004, such channels (which are usually intergral proteins with alpha helices) are important in letting in some important chemical... more... - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

Not in the first year. Around Easter you'll be selecting your module choices for next year. - Dr Alan Cann

The Exam Board meeting is on 10th February and the results will be published soon after that date. - Dr Alan Cann

It's on Blackboard with all your other #BS1010 marks. - Dr Alan Cann

Following Dr Cann's lecture on microbiology, it seems like infections not only re-emerge, but they do so in a stronger 'come back'. In this BBC article, a team of Canadian experts identify a strain of the bacterium we all know; E.coli. What we don't know however, is the fact (or theory) that a strain of E.coli, namely E.coli O157 could increase the risk of getting heart diseases! The article explains how the bacteria does so, albeit in a very brief way. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi

One of the important advances in cancer treatment is the realization that cancers are genetic diseases. They usually arise due to mutations in sequences coding for proteins that are involved in controlling the checks of the cell cycle. This is does not mean that cancer are only hereditary; the environment also plays a substantial role. This review doos not add anything new to the field. However, it sums up in a rather beautiful and concise way the relationship between cancer and environment, and the obvious role of inflammations in promoting the development of tumours. - Abdulkhaliq Alsaadi