Genes beat AIDS

So like
I had to do a blogpost for assessment.
I also have to present this.
Like, tomorrow.

AIDS is one of the most well-known terminal illnesses in our world. There is currently no cure for the pandemic disease, which is caused by the retrovirus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Being a retrovirus, the HIV inserts its own genetic material into human host cells, usually human T cells in the blood, which causes the cells to manufacture more HIV viruses and die in the process. The loss of such cells weakens the host's immune system. The host usually dies in an opportunistic infection by another bacteria or virus, HIV is not directly lethal.



Image source UCLA Asia Institute, http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/images/hiv_virus.jpg

There is, however, hope for a cure. In June 2010, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center researchers showed that inserting genes that nullify HIV infection into immune stem cells and then re-planting the stem cells into the body allowed the stem cells to develop into HIV-resistant systems, in experiments with four male AIDS patients who also had cancer. This didn't benefit the patients significantly, but it did not have harmful side effects.

Previous studies involving altering stem cell genes have been conducted, however the stem cells did not survive long after re-insertion. "the team added three genes to the immune stem cells' DNA: one that cripples the CCR5 receptor that HIV exploits to enter the cell... and two others that disable viral genes and prevent HIV from copying itself", reports John Cohen from ScienceNOW. Molecular geneticist Rossi believes that inserting only modified instead of a mix of modified and unmodified stem cells will result in a more effective procedure.

The researchers hope to further explore this concept and improve it to at least a better treatment to improve the quality of life for AIDS patients, if not curing AIDS completely.

The article can be found at this link.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/can-gene-therapy-cure-aids.html?ref=hp

Peiyuan Li

Sick

I'm really freaking sick. =S
And I've got a midsem exam to do before Wednesday, and an important prac tomorrow.

And, I had a weird dream.

lac Operon

So this lac operon is this operon found in prokaryotic cells (e.g. E. coli bacteria) that utilise lactose as an energy source.

Aside from that, I took a bunch of photos of UQ, and did a few tests. They were okay, but I could have done better. I also bought MINECRAFT. mmmm... Minecraft. Beta 1.13 is a lot better than 1.12, mostly in that the map generator rocks.

I found out that the library is still the most conductive place for learning and studying. Nothing changes. So now I plan on spending more time in the Biological Sciences Library (which is this really cool building that used to house all these biology books, but the books got moved to the Engo library, and now this library is just a 24/7 study library with tables and computers). I hope I won't be needing to take advantage of it being open 24/7 anytime soon, or ever. It'll be like HSC again, with much less stress and more interesting subjects. And my laptop with my Minecraft when I've finished a segment of work.

And we're forming a band! (Enter excitement). It will be good to get back into jamming shape again. David's on rhythm and Ken is on keyboard (and hopefully the microphone singing). I'll play lead guitar if we find a bassist, if not I'll play bass. We'll hunt down a bassist and a drummer somehow (or get someone to ruthlessly send Alan flying over here with an incredibly powerful punch). We haven't got a name or a style or a first jam session yet. You will have to wait before beholding the epicness, I'm afraid.

Thinking

Tonight at life group, a girl went to the front during worship and said, "'Have I not already died for you?' said the Lord"

Qld

So it's been something like two and a half months since my last blog post. Due to some reason which I have yet to think up.



  I'm sitting in the University of Queensland Biological Sciences Library writing a blog post, after doing a bunch of stuff off MasteringBiology, which is apparently a very valuable resource to biology students, but lags for me. Oh well. The air conditioning is in the typical library style, so cold that it almost seems to be trying to drive you out into the sun after two hours.



  The first few weeks at Brisbane were... well, I survived. A million things got broken though. The internet (yes its TPG, because it's included in the rent) was down for the first week of uni. My guitar broke while I was restoring it after five years of misuse and one year of non-use, so I had to fish around shops for a machine head. Now my internet browsers won't connect, even if my MSN can connect, for some reason. Ah wells. Shopping is quite the thing. The first time, I bought way too much food, but now I'm averaging around $30 of groceries per week. But that's because most uni days, I have lunch at uni. The first week of uni was intense, but I think I overreacted, such that up until now it's been much more relaxed.



   UQ is actually very pretty (Google image UQ for fun and profit!). It's kind of peaceful if you know where to look for peace. The main shopping/eating/whatever place is always jam packed. I think Subway maintains a line of around 20 customers for most of the day. I joined this group called Campus Christian Movement. It's mainly Singaporean and Malaysian. The church is really loud, but that's really cool. It's quite weird, I've never actually known any Singaporeans/Malaysians in Sydney. Apparently, they all speak at least 500 different languages. I was considering joining the table tennis club, but you have to pay something like $170 for an annual membership, and each time you want coaching you have to pay as well, so yeah. I went to the introductory free session (and got smashed) though.



  I live in a house around 2.4km's from uni, which is a reasonable walking distance if the suburb wasn't so hilly. There are 30 degree inclined roads, I kid you not. And they are quite common. So I take the bus wherever I go. It's pretty convenient, 5 minutes to Uni, around 25 minutes to the city, around 15 minutes to a Westfield. The house is shared between five people. Theres a PhD guy, a Malaysian curry guy, a Korean Biotech/accounting guy (who doesn't play Starcraft!), and another first year Bsc/MBBS guy (who got me addicted to DotA - why did people have to quit now??!). My cooking skills have improved exponentially, such that I can enter the rs cooking guild without a chef's hat and steal the 400gp green apple. But they're still limited to like, stir-frying everything I buy. Which is okay because stir-fried stuff taste nice. I brought my black guitar Jet with me, and picked it up again. I have to re-learn all the songs.


  I haven't really gotten to know anyone over here yet. The CCM people are very nice, and the housemates are cool. I ran into Lisa and Jess Hou a few times. I've chatted with a few people in my prac and tute groups.



  Brisbane's a nice city. But it's got nothing on Sydney, really. Except for the Brisbane public transport and roads in general. That's quite ownage. The buses are all new and have aircon, and so do the trains. Instead of paying a fare each time, you can get this Go card which you scan each time you come onto a bus/train and scan when you get off. You put money into your Go card and yeah. It's much faster and saves heaps.



What's the false vine? Security? Pride? How does one cut it, if there's not much else left once it's been cut?

checkczech

checkczech, checkczech just checkczech it @ oomolomf.

So anyway!
Just got back from an interview for tutoring and from shopping at Parra. The interview was kind of iffy =S but I think I might still get the job!

So now I'll just go and buy
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince
Plato's Republic.

I also want Cities XL, so I can go around building cities. On the computer. Without me going around at all. I never got to complete a whole region in SimCity4, my attention span is too short. Then again I've rarely completed any games, especially RPGs.

Tuesday was kind of fun, but without Henry to play tips on ice, ice skating turned out to be a bit boring for me =S (ahem. Child/Louie too busy all the time for everyone else). Tangled was a really good movie, but it was super simplistic, even for a Disney family film. I thought we were going to watch Tron, but it turned out Tron starts right when ice skating finishes, so we watched Tangled instead.

EDIT
I've just received an offer from the University of Queensland for the MBBS program! I'm so relieved :D. Now just to see whether I can get the MBBS's in our state.

2011

So it has been ages since my last post (like, as ages as an Aegis of the Immortal). I could just attribute it to being busy or having gone overseas or something. However when it comes down to it, I was actually home most of the time, and was just way too lazy to post anything hahah. Being freed from schedules and deadlines has detrimental effects on my ability to just get up and do stuff.

I've been out of the house a bit, but I've stayed home more often than in December. My family went to beaches and parks for Christmas and New Year's Day with family friends, which I found to be rather boring. Well, the parks were boring, the beaches were okay - you could still enjoy beaches on your own.

My brother (the 10-year-old crazy thing) received a PS3 for Christmas. On it, we have MGS4, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Valkyria Chronicles, and Burnout Paradise, bought after an extensive session of bargain hunting (JB Hi-Fi is always cheaper for games. Except for SC2, which I think is going up in price lol). I haven't really played it much, apart from trying it out a bit.

So why does this 10-year-old kid get a whole PS3??! My parents were very happy that he got into OC at Matthew Pearce PS. I think they were desperate for him to escape Blacktown schools. He got some insane score like 281 out of 300 for the OC test, so I guess the PS3 comes as a reward?

I have just landed an interview at a tutoring place! Excited. This place called Dux College at Parramatta. I had asked them where they obtained my personal details from when they first emailed me, and addressed me by "Peter" despite myself being known as "Peiyuan" to UAC and BOS. Apparently they got my details from Gene, and if Gene endorses something then it probably is pretty ownage and ethical at the same time, so yeah. I hope I get a physics tutoring job!

Uni info day was hectic. I went to UNSW first and then USyd. There was quite a weird moment when Simon and I asked the bus coordinator at the UNSW bus place where they USyd buses were. I tagged along with Simon to USyd, I had no idea how to get there from UNSW in time for the arch lecture. I had a toss up between a few courses to put under med. Apparently, USyd is the best uni for architecture, better than UNSW. But then some of the USyd buildings are really... well, they aren't as good looking as UNSW buildings. There's the 1950's Soviet-modernist chem building, for example. The architecture building (Wilkinson building or something, this old red brick building feeling more ancient than the C-block) was kind of dangy, and the science lecture rooms were in worse wear than the dungeons (next to the catcombs) (i.e. chem labs) at Ruse. But the Usyd Law building was hectic, and the gothic revival quadrangle was, well, more... proper than UNSW. Went Galaxy World afterwards. I saw ROBOT at Market City (lolol!), and he bumped into me at Central when I was leaving. We also ran into a bunch of peeps going to Hakeem's house.

Lan/Ice-skating/Movies on the 11th; can't wait. Macquarie centre.

EDIT: I've just applied for working as a Pre-Uni tutor. Sent a proper cover letter and CV and all. I hope I get a call!