#microbio

[cutiepieautistic]

[er-cryptid]

Class II MHC Molecules

Glycoproteins found on antigen-presenting cells

Example = on macrophages

Part of the major histocompatibility complex

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[evangeliamerryll]

I’m going to report every M/W what sweater (jumper, if you’re not American) my microbio prof is wearing.

For example, first class it was a graveyard. Last week for our first test, it was dinosaurs.

Today he has a giant hot dog sweater on. The hot dog only has mustard on it, if that matters to you.

[wretchedwitchpussy]

eye twitching seeing raw fermented meat holistic content on the internet. WE HAVE RAW FERMENTED MEAT IT'S CALLED SALAMI. WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR UNSTERILIZED SUN-WARMED JAR IS MOLD AND BOTULISM AND ROT 😭😭😭

there r sooo many yummy and safe ways to consume raw and/or fermented foods but fermentation has to be done in conjunction with like. stopping bad+gross bacteria from growing on ur fermented food so that the good bacteria can do the fermentation.

this is oftentimes achieved by making the environment too acidic for harmful bacteria (kimchi, saurkraut, etc.), salting it for the same reason (cured meats, fish sauce), reducing light or reducing oxygen (sourdough, brined veggies). there r so many kinds of good bacteria out there you can consume safely through eating fermented foods but there are so many bacteria that absolutely just want to beat the shit out of you also.

and like. if I were to think to myself 'how might I poison myself in the most ridiculous and utterly inefficient way possible?' it would probably look a whole lot like speedrunning botulism and listeria by eating actively rotting meat out of a sun-warmed unsterilized jar because I ignored the thousands of years of human trial and error that led to safe fermentation and aging methods. holy shit.

[springstick]

I'll miss micro lab...

TSIA, Citrate, TSIA

Do I have like 3 other microbiology courses in my future? Yes. Will I miss this lab? Also yes, a lot. I loved this lab. My first introduction to real microbiology. The lab that made me realize I want to go into microbiology in the future. I'm happy to have taken it :)

[wikipediapictures]

Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

“Staphylococcus aureus colonies on blood agar. Note the golden yellow pigment and beta hemolysis around it.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[zoonotic]

[abbenai]

Epigenetic editor silences prion proteins in brains of mice

CHECK THIS OUTTTT this is an article about a really neat paper by neumann et al. that was published in science on the 28th of june that looks at epigentic editing that may help in treating prion disease and may have applications in other neurodegenerative diseases which cause protein accumulation like huntingtons, alzheimers, or parkinsons.

they created a fusion protein named CHARM. charm stands for Coupled Histone Tail for Autoinhibition Release of Methyltransferase. broken down, this name refers to:

the coupled histone tail: histones are proteins that help package DNA in cells. the "tail" of a histone is a part that can interact with other molecules. tn CHARM, this histone tail is used to help guide the tool to the right spot on the DNA, in this case the area which codes for PRP (prion proteins).

an autoinhibition release: this means that CHARM can remove a natural "brake" or stopper that normally keeps the DNA-modifying enzyme (methyltransferase) from working.

methyltransferase: this is the enzyme that adds the methyl groups (chemical tags) to the DNA, which the cell to ignore that part of the DNA and not produce the prion protein. basically a little DNI marker on the DNA.

rather than using CRISPR which is too large to do what they want, they used zinc finger proteins which are much smaller and are targeted to the prion protein. when the zinc finger protein attaches to the prion gene, the methyltransferase then recruits methyl groups to the DNA sequence telling the cell to ignore it!

sonia vallabh, one of the authors of the paper gave a ted talk earlier this month about prion disease. she was diagnosed with familial creutzfeldt-jakob disease and has been working on treatments and a cure since her diagnosis.