September 2018

Hey y'all, 

I am from Chicago, but I’ve been living in New Orleans for about three years now. Moving from Chicago to New Orleans was a big adjustment for me, but I’ve learned to truly love this city. Because I have built long lasting bonds with people from my previous university, my transition into this program was pretty smooth

I have acquired so much knowledge since staring this program! So far, we’ve studied basic pharmacology principles, inflammation, the mechanism of developing an allergic reaction and drugs that can be used during such a case, and lastly, reactive oxidative stress in the body. In basic principles we studied how to analyze drugs’ potency In vivo and Invitro, how drugs are metabolized by CYP450 enzymes that are mostly present in the liver and how they are excreted. A drugs molecule structure can be manipulated to increase or decrease its bio availability in the body. Furthermore, a drug’s half-life is very important to administer proper dosing to a patient.  We also learned about basic research techniques in terms of how to design and analyze scientific research experiments. 

We went on to study inflammation in the body and drugs that can be used to combat this issue in patients. We studied three eicosanoid pathways: Cyt P450, COX, and LOX pathway. The COX pathway was the main focus for antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs to inhibit this pathway. We went on to examine corticosteroid drugs and ended the module with anti-histamine drugs that can alleviative allergy symptoms and oxidative stress in the body. This program is pushing my limits academically, but I appreciate it because my substantial growth thus far!

I have not gotten time to volunteer because I have been adjusting to the program, but I have registered to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.  I chose this organization because home prices and rent has gotten very expensive in New Orleans and many longtime residents are struggling to find a place to live. I figured that I can help diminish this burden by building houses. Hopefully I’ll have a good experience while doing so, and I’ll keep you guys posted on the next blog entry. 

Cheers, 

Miriam

September Service Hours: 0
Fall Service Hours: 0