My future job

Hi, today I'm gonna talk you about my future job.

if everything goes well, I'll be a biochemist, and I want to work as a researcher and teacher at the university, obviously, I want to work in a laboratory, learn and apply a lot of biochemical techniques such as western blot, capillary electrophoresis, HPLC, confocal and electron microscopy, different stains, different cell lines, polymerase chain reaction, chromatography, centrifugation, spectrophotometry, flow cytometry, immunoprecipitation, crystallography X-ray, fluorimetry, and so on.

To apply all these techniques to different areas, I'm now very interested in chronic diseases, cell stress, cell metabolism, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum coupling with mitochondria, skeletal muscle, mitochondrial fission and fusion, and other things like those.

Obviously, my work would be indoor, sometimes I need the working environment to be sterile so as not to contaminate the reagents or the cell cultures, therefore it would be impossible to work outside.

About travel, I hope I can and have to travel a lot for my work, science is something that unifies the world, many times what is being discovered in one country is also being discovered in another and people have no idea, it is very important that there is a good scientific diffusion, both of the scientific world and among non-scientific people, therefore, I would like to travel to congresses, meetings, symposiums, workshops, and other activities that allow me to learn more, but I would also like participate in activities of scientific diffusion that allow the public to learn what science is doing, and the importance it has.

Glial exosomes promote axonal regeneration.

The salary doesn't worry me much, I know that Chile doesn't allocate a lot of money to research, but for me, it's enough to do what I like, in addition, I could eventually work outside the country, other countries devote much more money in science than Chile.

And finally, on my postgraduate studies, I want to apply to the master's degree in biochemistry mentioning proteins from the University of Chile, the university has a very good program which allows me to apply to the Magister in the fourth year, and to finish my undergraduate course at the same time that I do the magister, with a single thesis! it's fantastic. About the PhD, I'm not sure, maybe I want to do a doctorate in Chile, maybe abroad, that's a little uncertain at the moment.

Teased nerve fibers from peripheral nerves at different stages of degeneration immunostained using antibodies against neurofilament (red), a myelin protein (green) and collagen (blue).

About my hobbies

Hi, today I'm gonna talk to you about my hobbies.

Most of the people have hobbies, these common activities define people, like "yeah, the guy that loves skiing", or something like that, my point is that hobbies are important, because basically determine a little part of us.

Respect to me, I have some hobbies.

1. Study. I love learning things, understand how the things happen, I think that I have this hobby since that I start studying, is important to me because study makes me a better person, someone more educated, scholar, etc. Besides, the studies can carry someone very high, I hope things like that for me.

2. Watch movies. The world of the movies is so amazing and endless, I remember that I started loving movies when I was to Spiderman, in 2002. Movies are important to me because sometimes sit and watch a movie allows escape a little of our reality.

 When I was a kid, I loved playing video games, first, I had a play station 2, a Nintendo Wii, and different computers, I spent whole days playing. I'm also karateka, I'm a black belt in Shotokan karate, from fifth grade I train, but I left it behind because I moved to Santiago.

I would never have of hobby mmh something boring, or something bad, I don't like things that hurt others.

In the future, I'd love to have these hobbies: travel to many countries, go to many science congresses, participate in some animal rescue organization, etc.

Sarcoplasmic reticulum–mitochondria communication

I think that the mitochondria is the best organelle in the cell, obviously, they're in the cell, his diameter is 0,5 - 1 μm and his length oscillates in 7 μm. The way that all the organelles depends of the mitochondria is interesting, because the mitochondria is responsible for generating energy.

Mitochondrial energy generation is of utmost importance in cells subject to high energy demand, as is the case for continuously contracting cardiomyocytes. Several studies have shown that mitochondrial disorders, with concomitant diminished mitochondrial function, are detrimental to heart performance, leading to cardiac hypertrophy and ultimately to heart failure. Moreover, vascular physiology is also dependent on mitochondrial function, because both growth and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are dependent on mitochondrial energetics. Impaired mitochondrial function has been associated with excessive VSMC proliferation, a hallmark of augmented arterial resistance, which leads to pathologies such as atherosclerosis and pulmonary artery hypertension. Taken together, this evidence highlights the importance of mitochondrial metabolism in cardiovascular physiology and disease.

Mitochondria, as well as other intracellular organelles, are highly dynamic structures that undergo constant changes in their mass, morphology, localization, and composition according to cellular requirements. Moreover, studies from different laboratories have shown physical and functional communication between mitochondria and other organelles, such as the plasma membrane, nucleus, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER). ER–mitochondria coupling was the first type of organelle interaction described, and was recognized early on as being required for lipid exchange and calcium ion (Ca²⁺) transfer. At ER–mitochondria contact points, Ca²⁺ is directly transferred to mitochondria from ER stores, and, when in the mitochondrial matrix, stimulates Krebs cycle activity and ATP synthesis. In muscle cells, where the ER is termed sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), SR–mitochondria coupling is a critical regulator of cell metabolism.

In addition to the role in bioenergetics, Ca²⁺ release from the SR is crucial for VSMC and cardiomyocyte function, as both arterial and cardiac contraction are regulated by transient changes in cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentrations. Mitochondrial Ca²⁺ uptake is important for the modulation of muscle contraction, because mitochondria act as local Ca²⁺ buffers that participate in the shaping of Ca²⁺ signals. Disturbances in this Ca²⁺ buffering activity lead to abnormal increments in cytosolic Ca²⁺, which might activate different signalling pathways, including calcineurin and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II, both of which are associated with cardiac hypertrophy and HF. Interactions between the SR and mitochondria, as well as individual organelle morphology, are major determinants of efficient Ca²⁺ buffering and thus have an important role in both cardiomyocyte and VSMC physiology and dysfunction.

Some functions of mitochondria

The illnesses of mitochondria is related to mitochondrial dysfunction, mitochondrial diseases are sometimes (about 15% of the time) caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA that affect mitochondrial function. Other mitochondrial diseases are caused by mutations in genes of the nuclear DNA, whose gene products are imported into the mitochondria (mitochondrial proteins) as well as acquired mitochondrial conditions. Mitochondrial diseases take on unique characteristics both because of the way the diseases are often inherited and because mitochondria are so critical to cell function. The subclass of these diseases that have neuromuscular disease symptoms are often called a mitochondrial myopathy.

Since the first mitochondrial dysfunction was described in the 1960s, the medicine has advanced in its understanding the role mitochondria play in health and disease. Damage to mitochondria is now understood to play a role in the pathogenesis of a wide range of seemingly unrelated disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disease, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, migraine headaches, strokes, neuropathic pain, Parkinson's disease, ataxia, transient ischemic attack, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetes, hepatitis C, and primary biliary cirrhosis. Medications have now emerged as a major cause of mitochondrial damage, which may explain many adverse effects. All classes of psychotropic drugs have been documented to damage mitochondria, as have stain medications, analgesics such as acetaminophen, and many others. So the recommendation is don't take medications without knowing their side effects.

Confocal microscopy of mitochondria

Best concert ever

Hi, today I'll talk to you about the best concert that I had attended, this isn't just one concert, it's a festival, I attended to Lollapalooza 2015, there were a lot of artists, but I'll tell you about one, in particular, Alt-J.

The festival was in March, in O'Higgins Park, Santiago, Chile.

image one: a pic of the concert

Alt-J (Δ), is an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds, by Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Thom Sonny Green (drums) and Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals).The band's symbol is the capital letter delta, Δ, which is traditionally used in the scientific study to indicate "change" or "difference". The ∆ symbol can be typed on an Apple Mac with the key sequence Alt+J (on certain keyboard layouts).

image two: other pic of the concert

I went with my ex-best friend, both love Alt-j, or I suppose he still does, I remember when we listen to the song "Matilda", this song is so peaceful, the atmosphere at that time was very calm, all the people moved their arms from side to side, my friend enjoyed the song so much, I was happy.

I enjoyed the concert because the band likes me, because the gender of music of the band likes me, the letter of their songs likes me, but especially because I was with my old friend.

something funny is that, recently, my friend had cut all his hair because they had made him participate in the first activities of his university, the typical "tuft", then he had no hair, and I told him to wet his head so it would not burn.

image three: Me and my old friends