Poster presentation fun

Hello

Today was interesting. After the bureaucratic chores of yesterday, today I got to sit in for a neonatal discussion meeting in the morning. That's when cases of newborn babies that appear to have some clinical abnormalities are discussed by a team of obstetricians, paediatricians, radiologists, nurses and researchers. Together they try and come up with the best possible medical management strategy for the little ones. First the doctor primarily responsible for looking after the baby describes the situation and the response of the parents. The rest of the team then asks questions, and if the baby has had some scans then these are talked through by one of the radiologists. After another round of questioning, the group then decides what would be the best step forward. It was a fascinating hour. I got to revise diseases like Sturge-Weber syndrome and Dandy-Walker syndrome, but also learnt about how some parents try and cope with these.

In the afternoon, I went back to South Ken, for a Graduate School of Life Sciences and Medicine poster presentation evening. I only new two other people, and since all the other grad students began at the start of the last academic year, I was the only one without any work of my own. Felt like I right chump. It was definitely worth going though. One very interesting poster was about the capacity of cells within Wharton's jelly to express neuronal cell markers. Wharton's jelly is a connective tissue matrix that surrounds and protects blood vessels within the umbilical cord. Stromal cells from Wharton's jelly appear similar to mesenchymal stem cells. However, the presenter's data suggested that the cells may be multipotential, and could be induced to develop into neuronal and neuroglial cells. The guy argued that if we collected Wharton's jelly during pregnancy, we could have a ready source of neuronal precursor cells, which could be used in certain neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Since umbilical tissue is discarded after pregnancy this would eliminate have the ethical and moral dilemma surrounding the use of embryonic tissue as a source of neuronal stem cells. There would also be no problems with tissue rejection, since these would essentially be autologous cells. It's an exciting piece of research and I'm waiting to see what happens.

Exam update

Today for me is a good day. After all the heartache of Tuesday, I finally think all your combined prayers and all those long nights in the library paid off. The exam today was on 'Neurodegenerative Disorders' and I gave it my best shot. First there were some short answer questions all about regeneration within the CNS, and then an essay on astrocytomas. On the advice of friends from a USMLE prep forum, a while back I bought HY Neuroanatomy and all the main information was there. Thanks so much!

Yesterday's exams were tougher. For some reason I still don't understand myself, myopic me had completely ignored revising head movements, the vestibuloocular and optokinetic reflexes and they came up! I was desperately racking my brains and moving my head from side to side trying to see which semicircular canals would be stimulated when. The afternoon was nicer though, with stuff on schizophrenic hallucinations, alcohol's effects on the brain and Huntington's ethical implications.

I got back from our post-exam get together a couple of hours ago, and feel really refreshed. It was great seeing friends from med school again after being by my shelf(!) these past few weeks. We're all still really tired though. All the revision-time beards had been grown as we moved and most of us could barely keep awake. In the desperation of the time though, I'd started taking Proplus, a caffeine pill. I never normally even drink coffee, so I now can't get to sleep at all. It will allow me to put some more work hours in tonight, though. It's USMLE all the way until ... Monday. That's when we start our nine weeks in the lab, but I should have a lot more free time. The plan is to start with my second listening of Goljan on the way to college, get a couple of hours of Kaplan done in the morning, and trying as many questions done in the evening as I can. Hopefully I too will book that exam date soon. And I'll start updating my progress daily! Gotta be more accountable. Your plans?

Stay well,
Moc

My BSc project

Let me tell you a little bit about my BSc Neuroscience project, which I'll be working on for the next two months. I'll be investigating the role played by a protein, p35, on the development of the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory formation. p35 is an important neuronal-specific activator of Cdk5, which plays a critical role in neuronal migration and brain development, and has many neurocytoskeletal substrates. Click here for an abstract of a review paper. Mice lacking Cdk5 or p35 expression demonstrate marked cortical abnormalities, but the effect of p35 loss on the hippocampus has not been extensively investigated. Hippocampal tissue extracts from Cdk5 knockout mice show significantly decreased axonal outgrowth and axonal growth cone morphology, and my short project will investigate whether similar effects are observed in hippocampal tissue from p35 knockout mice. I won't discuss the methods I'll use here as they're quite technical and boring to read through, but please send me a message if you're interested and I'd be happy to tell you about them.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Moc

The exam

Well, I've been preparing for this day for the last few months. My first end-of-year BSc Neuroscience exam. I finished it a few hours ago but now I'm weeping. I made a classic and ridiculous mistake. The exam was three hours long on two separate modules. In the first one there were three short answer question and then a choice of one from three different essay questions. That was ok. Then I moved on to the second module. In the stress of the situation I didn't read the question properly and didn't realise that in this one the essay questions were first. I was thinking that the questions seemed quite detailed to only require a short response, but I didn't stop to check, and ended up speed writing in the most shockingly bad handwriting. When I then got onto the first short answer question I tried to write an essay but could fill more than half a page. Realised the mistake fifteen minutes before the end and desperately got a few lines down on the remaining two questions. But they are more or less nonsense. I'm going to write an email to the coordinator now explaining what happened and pleading for mercy for my stupidity! Well, the second exam's in eighteen hours so I'd better get back to work. 'Vison and Visual Dysfuntion' and 'Neuropsychiatric Disorders' await. Thanks for dropping by.

Moc

Neuropathology results

I got my mark from from the neuropath practical. Alpha minus. I don't know what percentage that correlates to, but it mustn't be too high, as the mean mark this year was still poor. It's a bit of a bummer because I should have known my stuff better, seeing as I'm the only guy in class working for Step 1, but it could have been quite a bit worse. It still feels worrying that our path is so bad though. At this stage, I don't think I'd be able to do much good to patients. A couple of years to rectify that though. On that note, I'd better get back to work.

Moc

Pathology? I'm pickled

Ouch, last week's neuropathology exam was hard. Really hard! I'd spent the past week revising but three minutes per specimen wasn't enough and I think I haven't done very well. The only positive I can take is that last year the mean mark was very low. I'm still coughing badly, and my throat feels really inflamed. I went to see my general practitioner this morning, and he thinks it could be post-viral. Apparently it can last another month. Hope you're all well.

Moc

Much better

Thanks a lot for your wishes! I'm feeling much better today. Still have a sore throat and a runny nose, but could concentrate during all my lectures today. Yesterday I was feeling so rotten that I actually fell asleep during a lecture on treatment strategies for Parkinson's disease. So today I'm planning on catching up, and am studying with a friend in the library. There's a whole stack of journal papers I need to read about prion diseases and taupathies, but it's interesting stuff and I'm enjoying it. I'd better get back to it now though, if I want to finish it by tonight. Have a great and productive weekend, team. Keep at it.

Moc