#lipogenesis

The Scientific Research Notes of S. Sunkavally. Years: 1986 - 1990.

Mixed media on A4 paper (21 x 29,7 cm , 350 gr.)

Shit, missed rehearsal today. In all fairness, I didn't know I had to go until about a half hour ago when I got a scathing text from the MTSoc head. My bad. 

(The above was a draft that I saved in preparation for a post on Monday, sorry I've been away)

It's been a while but I've got an excuse. I've had no lectures since yesterday, and also I got Uncharted 3, so I've been a little preoccupied. 

Anyway, since Monday, we did the whole Tissues thing, absolute mindfuck, it's amazing how many different tissue types we have, all derived from the same type of cell in each tissue. The tissues make up organs, the organs make an organism, which is us. I'm sorry, but personally, I can't accept that this all happened due to chance and evolution. Especially when you look at how ATP synthase works in oxidative phosphorylation, how electrons are shuttled across the mitochondrial membranes using chemical intermediates, how DNA replicates, protein folding, enzymes, how everything is connected in the cell's metabolism pathways. It's absolutely amazing. Anyway, maybe you do believe it's down to chance, I'm not one to judge. 

Anyway, I did go to subsequent rehearsals, they went good, finally learnt the steps to the dances, and I was even privileged enough to be asked to teach the steps to other people which was fun. The production is looking to be a good one, I hope it will to be honest, I've put so much effort into this, aha.

Lipid metabolism and cholesterol biosynthesis are proving to be the tough ones to learn at the moment, we need to know the ATP yield of the β-oxidation cycle, the enzymes, substrates, reactants and products of the whole thing. We need to know lipogenesis and the sequences of events that lead to the formation of palmitate and we need to know how cholesterol is formed from acetyl-coA. Hard stuff, though I might be able to do cholesterol synthesis, the enzymes are a bit iffy though.

Acetyl-coA > Acetoacetyl-coA > HMG-coA > Mevalonate > Mevalonate-5-phosphate > mevalonate-5-pyrophosphate > mevalonate-3-phospho-5-pyrophosphate > isopentenyl pyrophosphate > 3,3-dimethylallyl pyrophosphate > geranyl pyrophosphate > farnesyl pyrophsphate > squalene > squalene-2,3-epoxide > lanosterol > cholesterol

There are substrates and enzymes that I've missed but that's the sequence of formation of cholesterol from acetyl-coA. Crazy huh?

There's so much stuff to learn. Thankfully, I'm going home on the weekend to celebrate Eid on Sunday, which means Friday and Saturday, I can work hard and learn all this stuff, yay for me!