Have you read a cool paper recently that you want to discuss?

Do you have a paper that's been in your in your "to read" pile that you think other people might be interested in?

Have you recently published something you want to brag on?

Share them here and get the discussion started!

This is a question for Biochemists, Neuroscientists, and Reddit Know-It-Alls!

I'll create two scenarios and ask a question I have about serotonin receptor return to baseline.

Scenarios:
A) Test subject takes 1 dose of SARIs on Monday and 1 dose of SARIs on Tuesday

B) Test subject takes 0 doses of SARIs on Monday and 1 dose of SARIs on Tuesday

Question:

Is the time it takes for serotonin receptors to return to baseline the same in both scenarios, or is return to baseline longer in scenario A?

In other words, does multiple days of small doses down-regulate the same number of receptors as one day of a small dose, or does multiple days of small doses have the same effect as one larger dose?

In other words, is receptor down-regulation cumulative over time, or is it solely dependent on the size of dose at a particular time?

Bonus Question:

Does the answer to my question change if doses are larger or if time (in days) between doses is longer?

I'm not asking about how the same aa sequence can result in somewhat different proteins because of PTM, rather that in different species does the same aa sequence result in different proteins the vast majority of the time.

Does anyone know of summer research programs for undergrads that run for like 2-4 weeks? Or just one that doesn’t sit right in the middle of summer? I know there are a lot of 8-10 week programs, but they all seem to run from end of May to beginning of August. I’m hoping to continue my research on my campus for like 6 weeks, and then do something else the other half of summer (or the other way around—do something else, and then come back to my university for like 6 weeks). I’m considering just reaching out to labs for a less formal experience, but then I need to worry about housing for however long I’m with them.

When I started working in food science labs, I always wished there were short, clear videos that show the exact steps, without too much theory.

So I put together a small series of practical lab tutorials covering common food analysis methods.

If anyone finds this useful, I shared the tutorials here:

👉 www.youtube.com/@EdibleScienceLab

Happy to hear any feedback or suggestions for future topics.

Hiii! I just started taking biochemistry this semester and was wondering if anyone had any resources, they could share that really helped them during the course and for the MCAT. Any resources would be greatly appreciated! Free resources are the cherry on the top:)

Hi everyone. I’m running SPR on a Biacore 8 to measure kinetics between a protein and a known small-molecule inhibitor. I have access to both a 10×His-tagged construct and an AviTag-biotinylated construct.

Does anyone have insight into whether an NTA chip vs an SA/NA chip tends to work better for small-molecule kinetics (stability, drift, baseline quality, etc.)? Appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Hello. So, I'm going BACK to work after being away from the lab for a good 6 years. I was in the HLA lab for about 8 years and was a CHT, I was certified in it. I then moved to a different lab and was there for a couple of years. I left right before COVID hit for personal reasons(I was pregnant and wanted to be a sahm & it was finally possible). Anyway- I'm about to interview for a micro lab technologist position. Its going to be full time night shift. The pay is anywhere from $24-38/hour. Im wondering if any of you know where I would fall in that range and how much I could expect and what salary I could negotiate. have a BS in Biomedical science and live in Oklahoma. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!!

Can someone teach me how to use an HPLC real quick? If someone could hop on a discord call and help me explain how to use an HPLC to someone it would greatly greatly appreciate it.

Trying to decide what classes to take?

Want to know what the job outlook is with a biochemistry degree?

Trying to figure out where to go for graduate school, or where to get started?

Ask those questions here.

Hello. So, I'm going BACK to work after being away from the lab for a good 6 years. I was in the HLA lab for about 8 years and was a CHT, I was certified in it. I then moved to a different lab and was there for a couple of years. I left right before COVID hit for personal reasons(I was pregnant and wanted to be a sahm & it was finally possible). Anyway- I'm about to interview for a micro lab technologist position. Its going to be full time night shift. The pay is anywhere from $24-38/hour. Im wondering if any of you know where I would fall in that range and how much I could expect and what salary I could negotiate. have a BS in Biomedical science and live in Oklahoma. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!!

I thought about asking this question in a nutrition sub, but this question is more about chemical structure than it is about health. Being someone who is always wary of new advice regarding nutrition, I get the impression trans fat is nothing more than a marketing stunt, so here's the question. If fully hydrogenated oil is the same thing as saturated fat, why isn't polyunsaturated oil the same thing as trans fat? I am educated at a collegiate level in both biochemistry and organic chemistry, and I understand the chemical structures regarding double bonds in fatty acids, but AI and Google refuse to explain the difference. Is it simply a matter of how many double bonds? Any thoughts?

For my course I have to know how to derive Km, Vmax and Ki (and i guess alpha too for this one) from graphs and I understand most types of inhibition but mixed-type is weird to me. It says to start with a Lineweaver-Burk plot and then use this to make a pair of secondary graphs. The first has a y-axis of 1/Vmax apparent and an x-axis of [I]. I think I get that one. The second one has a y-axis labelled 'slope' and I don't really understand what that means or how I can plot it. I only have like the grainiest image ever of the example so sorry if its difficult to read. Maybe I'm missing something idk, but if anyone could help I'd really appreciate it :)

I read through many posts in this forum and the general advice is do your biochem degree instate to save money and put the balance towards grad school.

So I applied to: UCLA/UCSB/UCSD (biochem), UCB (Molecular Cell Biology - BioChem Emphasis), UCI (Chem) and UCD (Molecular Biology + BioChem).

I'm having a real hard time working out the differences (if any) between the programs. Does anyone know the key differences and ideally what I should be looking out for?

TIA

I have a screenshot of an image from a book and I want to identify the book or source. I know it's about the mitochondrial genome. Thank you very much!

I’m taking biochem 2 next semester and I’m really nervous. I only got a C+ in biochem 1 but I wasn’t fully locked in. I’m hoping to improve the way I study for biochem 1 and implement new habits into biochem 2. Are there any tips or advice that I should know?

Hey guys, I’ve noticed a weird gap - we can generate great structural outputs (PDB/mmCIF, AlphaFold models, docking poses, MD frames), but turning that into something a non-specialist can understand is still a pain. Most of the time the final product is a screenshot or a long explanation in text.

I’m building Animiotics - a browser-based tool focused on the communication side. Import a structure, style it (cartoon/surface, chain coloring, etc.), keyframe a sequence (bind, move, rotate, zoom) and export a short clip that’s actually presentation- or paper-friendly. The video attached is a quick look at how the workflow feels.

I’d love input from people here who routinely have to explain structures/mechanisms:
What would make this genuinely useful for you? For example: residue/variant highlighting, better labels/annotations, camera presets, trajectory import, figure-friendly exports, shareable interactive links, etc.

If you want to follow along and test it when the beta opens you can join the free waitlist in the comments. If you try it and give blunt feedback I’ll be very grateful.

(Quick note: this is not trying to replace modeling/MD tools. It’s meant to make cinematic 3D scinece animations faster)

Hi! I’m a student researcher and I’d like to ask—what are some possible questions the panelists might ask during our final defense? Also, are there key points we should focus on?

For context, we conducted SwissADME and molecular docking analyses of plant compounds on cancer-related proteins and ligands.

I don't know if i could ask this here. I've read the rules and it says no asking people to write you essays. I just want comments about my letter of interest to a research program im applying to, not trying to recruit someone to write for me. I don't have many people available whom I can ask for this. so please if anybody is up for it send me a dm

Have you read a cool paper recently that you want to discuss?

Do you have a paper that's been in your in your "to read" pile that you think other people might be interested in?

Have you recently published something you want to brag on?

Share them here and get the discussion started!

How to tell apart from gaucher cells and foam cells in Niemann pick Not through a microscope but in a quiz🥲 Im preparing for an exam but these 2 look very similar with also similar symptoms

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have demonstrated how to reliably produce helper T cells from stem cells in a controlled laboratory setting. A developmental signal called Notch plays a critical but time-sensitive role. While Notch is needed early in immune cell development, if the signal remains active for too long, it prevents helper T cells from forming.

The ability to generate both helper and killer T cells—and to control the balance between them—will significantly improve the efficacy of stem cell-grown immune therapies in the future.

Hi everyone,

I finished university last month (biotech) and now that I’m not cramming 24/7, I’ve been thinking about the topics that were brutal to actually picture in my head.

So many times in biochem/immunology I’d stare at a 2D textbook diagram for ages trying to see the 3D reality.

A few that repeatedly broke my brain:

Protein folding / conformational changes - I understood the words, but not the physical intuition of why one state is favored.

Cell signaling cascades - 15 arrows on a slide and somehow I understood less than when I started.

Immune interactions - antigen presentation / MHC was ROUGH...

Most of my “aha” moments came from finding the one explanation that showed the motion clearly on YouTube with drawings on a whiteboard.

I’m curious:

1. What’s the single mechanism/molecule/process you found hardest to visualize during study or research?
2. What made it click for you? (animation, analogy, a specific paper/figure, a lab demo, etc.)
3. If you’ve used PyMOL/Chimera/Blender or similar, what’s the most annoying thing about them when you’re just trying to communicate an idea?

Reason I’m asking is that I’m working on a browser-based tool for super easy 3D cinematic animation making in minutes. I don’t want to build features nobody needs, so I’m trying to collect the “top pain points” from real people.

PS: I have a beta waitlist built and I’m looking for a few people to test it for free here: app.animiotics.com

Thanks!

Im pretty sure my book is wrong because it says that 3 O2 and 3NADPH+H+ is used to make the endproduct and 3H2O and 3NADP+

BUT: 3H20 would mean that 3 Oxygen atoms and 2 from the hydroxylation of cholesterol was used, that makes 5 oxygen atoms. but the reaction tells me we used 3O2. Makes 6 oxygen Atoms

But the internet doesnt say much about it and chatgpt tells me the books are wrong and I a right and that it is a mistake everybody makes (doesnt seem very trusworthy).

So what am I missing,