PML and UMDSOM SNMA

Sooooo many acronyms in that title. But they shall be explained!

PML means Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy. UMDSOM means University of Maryland School of Medicine. And SNMA means Student National Medical Association.

I was invited to a dinner with this group this past Friday evening. It was a get together for some of the minority students that attend the school of medicine. There were some awesome people there!

The person I was talking to what describing one of her unique experiences. She described an HIV positive patient that was not taking their medication. As a result, the patient developed PML. My eyes opened so wide, I bet they were going to pop out. PML is such an interesting disease to me. So to hear that she actually saw it in person there at the SOM was amazing!

This honestly felt like one little push by God saying that this place was the place for me. And I couldn't be more thrilled!

Almost There!

Only 2 weeks of classes left. And then finals week. And then graduation. My undergraduate career is almost over! It felt like I just entered college, though. Goodness doesn't time pass?

I need to get back on par with my work so I don't fail! Luckily I've been having a bit more motivation to complete my work. My labs are up to date and I'm performing better on exams.

What I need to do now is finish Project 3, making up that last quiz I missed, and do my case studies. I could possibly finish the class with an A if I would hard enough. Since I'm not so focused on earning a very good grade, I'm finding that I am enjoying the material we are learning. While it isn't my favorite subject in terms of intricacies, it is still rather intriguing. Hopefully we get to make it to the cancer chapter before finals!

I'm excited for these next two weeks. The class is great, the people are great, and the material is just awesome to absorb. It will be bittersweet when it is over.

Calcium and its Effect on Red Blood Cells

So this past Wednesday, Lydia, Christina, and I managed to make our way to NIH to attend a seminar. It was titled Calcium-driven signalling in Red Blood Cells in Health and Disease. It was a fairly small seminar with about 10-15 people in attendance. Regardless, it was still very good.

It was completely awesome to see all of the information learned in Cell Biology, Animal Physiology, Genetics, Histology, and Biochemistry combined in this cool research! The most interesting park of the presentation was the researchers discovered that calcium actually binds to hemoglobin to allow the release of oxygen. The question is where calcium binds to hemoglobin.

I can't wait to attend another seminar at NIH! It feels so great to understand about 95% of what presenters are discussing in seminars. WAU Biology and Chemistry Department has really prepared us well. :D