Ask a Biochemist!

[Happygun]

As some of you may know, I hold a doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and work at a research lab at UCSF. I thought it'd might be fun (and a good exercise for me) to hold a Q&A on the forum.

So if you have a burning question about biology or chemistry that can't be answered by a quick search on Google or Wikipedia, post 'em here and I'll do my level best to answer them.

[Toast]

I heard that chameleons use crystal matrices in their skin to help them change color, but I can't find any details. I thought it worked like octopuses, with pigment-filled cells that expand and contract. What gives?

[Ganthan]

Aside from human chromosome #2, are there any more known examples of chromosome chains getting fused?

[Happygun]

[Happygun]

[Ganthan]

How close are we to a real life Jurassic World?

[Happygun]

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

[Happygun]

Anything else?

[Ganthan]

Have we isolated the genes that control breast size in human females?

[Happygun]

[Happygun]

I work in a laboratory that studies HIV, if that piques anyone's interest.

[bar1scorpio]

Biochemically, what would happen in SanFrancisco when....


ENTERS THE LAB FOR A
5-SLIDE "SCOPES & LADDERS"
MICROBIOLOGY MATCH?!?!?

[Happygun]

[bar1scorpio]

[Happygun]

I was reading a journal article on axonal growth and I noticed this reference...

Cheng, P.L., Poo, M.M., 2012. Early events in axon/dendrite polarization. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 35, 181–201

The co-author's full name is Mu-ming Poo.

I'm sorry. Different culture and nomenclature and as Terry Prachett observed there are only so many syllables out there, but...

[Kris@WLP]

My brain just jumped the tracks at the name "P. L. Cheng" and said, "Huh. I wonder if there's a combination neurology clinic and Asian fusion cuisine restaurant somewhere?"

[bar1scorpio]