#abzymes

It's 2 AM after a long day; I feel tremendously accomplished yet regrettably unproductive. I guess it all depends on what I count as "work".

Today I:

Missed my physical chemistry class - though at 8 am, it's hard for me to soak in anything substantial anyway, plus I learn a lot more from doing the homework.

Structural biochemistry lecture - way cool, yo: mechanism of serine protease catalysis and abzymes (one of the most fascinating things we've learned this quarter - I'll write about it more at the end if you want to read).  

Lab - amplified a plasmid vector (we were running low and our frozen stock of E. coli carriers somehow died). Talked to my supervisor about his patent application; he liked the feedback I gave him ("Some of your comments were spot on") so I felt good about myself.

Co-coordinator ("Co-co") meeting for SPACES. Planning for our Open House event (we decided on quesadillas), discussed future plans for expanding our physical space, updates on a few issues with some of our interns, and the more I type the more I realize the rest should be kept confidential. Lol. 

Math discussion - one hour before it was due, scrambled to start and finish math homework. Success. Also got my midterm back. Made some silly mistakes but still got an A. Success. 

1:1 with Brenda - "One-to-one" meetings are held between the SPACES Co-co's and the interns, used for things like personal support, counseling, and updates. Brenda is one of my favorite interns at SPACES to work with. I always enjoy our 1:1 meetings. :)

SPACES College Tour planning - This took up a major chunk of my day. Currently coordinating a college tour for high school students for winter break with my partner Joanna. Super excited. Stayed up until 1 am in the office finalizing the agenda, which will also be kept confidential. :)

I could have (should have?) studied for my midterms for Molecular Basis of Human Disease and Structural Biochemistry (both next Tuesday and I am so behind in both classes -.-). I'll regret it later when it's Sunday/Monday night and I'm realizing that there's no time to study for both exams. But whatever. For the moment, I'm super-excited that the college tour is going to happen!!! (I'm finding it so hilarious that barely anything I've written in this post, or this blog in general, pertains directly to the MCAT. This needs to change soon.)

My goals for this weekend:

Finalize line-item budget for SPACES college tour (Friday).

Make some flash cards for myself - I am so ashamed to admit that I haven't memorized my amino acids.

Go home! <3 (Items to bring from home: vitamins, winter clothes, charger for camera, cooked food because I have no time to cook).

8 hours at the hospital for CCE (if anyone wants to know more about the clinical care extender internship, just use the ask!). 

Skim lecture slides for Molecular Basis of Human Disease.

Review notes and slides for Structural Biochemistry.

For both classes - hopefully finish learning all the content and making up my missed lectures before Monday, which I will then have for review.

Why do I feel like this is unmanageable/impossible?

(And things I am still putting off: a committed MCAT study plan. :X)

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More on abzymes:

Enzymes are proteins that help speed up and facilitate many chemical reactions in biology. They work because they lower the activation energy and stabilize the transition state. For example, I am currently sitting in my chair, quite comfortable (or stable) as I type these words, but I also know I'd be a lot more comfortable lying in my underwear in bed. So why aren't I lying in bed? Aside from the fact that I somehow convinced myself to remain to committed to this blog, I'd have to get up off my ass and walk over. That's the greatest barrier, isn't it? The brief moment when my body is out of my chair represents an unstable transition state that I would need to go through in order to get to my bed. 

Similarly, chemical reactions are a transformation: A -> B. But to get from A to B, the molecules need to go through a brief, unstable, intermediate transition state that is often kind of difficult to get to: A -> (AB)* -> B.

 By analogy, this is parallel to Howard in chair -> (Howard getting up)* -> Howard in bed.

Enzymes function by making this transition state more stable, more energetically accessible to the molecules. Their unique structure binds to the molecules and makes their transition state more stable, less awkward, and less uncomfortable. Like if a cute and compatible guy offered to hold my hand while I made my way to the bed (though that might be more awkward/uncomfortable for me, so it's not the best example lol).

So what if we have a chemical reaction that we want to artificially speed up? If we know enough about the reaction, we can predict the structure of the transition state and synthesize another stable molecule, a transition state analog, that looks like the transition state of the reaction (the actual transition state is usually too unstable to work with directly - if I'm standing up, I'm immediately going to sit back down or fall into my bed). From the transition state analog, we can generate antibodies (proteins naturally produced by your immune system and, more recently, artificially synthesized by biochemists to bind to specific molecular structures - but antibodies can be very complicated... another lengthy blog post about them later) to bind to the transition state analog.

And here's the cool part: If the antibody binds to the analog, it probably can also binds to the actual transition state. And if it binds to the transition state, it does so in a way that stabilizes it. And if the antibody stabilizes the transition state, it can function as an enzyme (or an abzyme: antibody + enzyme all in one!) by speeding up your desired reaction!

Important therapeutics have been made in this way, including the development of abzymes that help degrade cocaine into smaller, nontoxic fragments.