When I signed up for neurochemistry last spring, I didn’t know what this class entailed. The only knowledge I had came from my cousin, who had taken it during the fall 2013 semester. She said that she enjoyed it, but it did include quite a lot of reading. I didn’t think much about it again until the informational meeting during Celebration of Student Scholarship. After this meeting, I was quite intimidated about what I was going to be doing. I had learned that this was very different from the science classes I had taken previously, and that it focused a lot on the core.
While I was nervous about the focus on core, I actually ended up really enjoying it. This course has allowed me to connect a lot of my studies with the different articles we read. I had to pull on my other knowledge and resources to learn more details about the neurological dysfunction that were written about. My favorite days in neurochemistry were Fridays, in which we got to have a group discussion led by peers. These discussions started began with a focus on a cause for these diseases, but usually moved towards society’s job and responsibilities that it has towards these patients. Great debate was had on Fridays in regards to humanity’s responsibility for itself.
The semester was wrapped up by different groups creating a public service announcement for one of the diseases we studied. My group chose concussions and CTE. I enjoyed this project a lot because we were able to communicate the scientific information in a fun and accessible way. My group’s PSA will be at the end of this post. I think this class was a great way to cap off core requirements at Concordia. It combined the core values and chemistry that I love perfectly.
At the end of this class, I was able to better critically read scientific articles and then communicate to others. I also had better knowledge of the reasons behind neurological dysfunctions. The human body needs a lot of balance and regulation to function properly. I also realized how much we really don’t understand the human body, and that continuing research is necessary to help those who suffer with these disorders and diseases.
Concussion PSA
Wrapping it up
In order to satisfy the requirements to graduate at Concordia you must take a capstone class. The goal of this class is to wrap up our education and allow us to realize how much we have matured and grown in understanding as students. For me neurochemistry was the capstone class I elected to take. This was a very unique class that had an interesting curriculum. It deterred from the usual class structure in which the professor lectures and the students memorize. This class was instead set up purely as a group discussion class in which the students taught each other the material they were going over in the current articles about neurological diseases. Since the articles where recent and very detailed it meant that the professor was learning the material at the same time as the students.
It is because of this unique learning environment that I was able to see how much I have grown as a student since I entered college as that nervous freshmen and have become a confident senior. Throughout much of college if I didn’t understand the material the professor was there to explain it to me. As I climb the ladder of education I realize that there are fewer people around who can answer the complicated questions I am beginning to ask. This class demonstrated how well Concordia has molded me with the capacity to collaborate with other students so that together we can find the answers to those difficult questions. Each article we would read would leave almost the entire class confused on the first day, but as we discussed the areas we were struggling with and brought our own unique individual understandings we were able to paint a picture of what was being discussed in the article. This class not only found importance in learning very detailed pathways about brain disorders, but also focused on being able to share that knowledge with the general public. That is a major flaw that many scientists like me struggle with, talking like normal human beings. It was a great learning experience to write a blog that took the complicated issues we were dealing with and turn them into simplified summaries that allowed the public to learn about the new progress with these hot topic diseases without leaving them more confused than when they started reading.
This class has shown me that the more I yearn to learn and seek out knowledge, the more I will realize that I am only scratching the surface on these interesting yet complicated issues. It has shown me that it is alright to not know the answer right away because we have been taught the fundamentals that allow us to find the answer. One of the best parts of this experience was having a very close knit class that has known each other for almost four years now. We were able to find a nice balance between joking and learning. It created an environment that was both enjoyable and worth while.
Capping it off!
At Concordia College, part of the core curriculum is taking a “capstone” course. This course is supposed to “cap-off” our liberal arts learning experience and further instill the idea of BREWing (becoming responsibly engaged in the world) in our lives.
Neurochemistry was my capstone course.
I took the class largely because I was required to for my major. Even had it not been required I would have still taken the course due to it being one of the few science-based capstone courses. My reasoning for taking the course would have been solely due to the fact that I could easily understand the material since I am a Biochemistry major.
I would have never guessed how much I would learn and how important this class would be to my liberal arts experience.
Neurochemistry was unlike any course I have ever taken in college. While I did learn new and interesting scientific material like I have in other classes, what I really took away from the class was the ability to think critically about scientific literature and apply problem solving skills to real life issues.
As we read articles about neurological diseases, we always tried to keep in mind bigger, societal issues with these diseases and how our newfound knowledge may help problem solve. Key to the class was our class discussions that occurred every Friday. These discussions helped to solidify the material in the article but also to brainstorm ideas with classmates about how neurological diseases affect society and how science can contribute. Usually, I am not a fan of discussion-based classes (heresy at a liberal arts school), but I found these discussions actually worth my time and I looked forward to hearing what classmates had to say about the material.
One of the most valuable portions of the class was the type of tests we took. The tests were less about regurgitating material and more about thinking critically. We could not just memorize and repeat information but had to read clues about an article and hypothesize what was happening in a disease. This portion helped me to really piece together portions of information and come up with a coherent argument about what I thought was happening. The second portion of the test was to read the actual article and evaluate our own hypothesis.
I had never heard of a test like this before neurochemistry. It was a nice change of pace that was actually more applicable to real life. In real life, you don’t get “tested” on whether or not you have memorized formulas or definitions or whether or not you have names and dates correct. Your “test” comes in thinking critically and problem solving. Your “test” is when you are given a little information and required to come up with solution on the spot or shortly thereafter.
The material I learned in neurochemistry may or may not come up later on in my life (as a future physician it will likely come up), but what I gained from the class was not new facts, but deeper thinking. I gained the ability to think critically about scientific literature and apply new knowledge to important problems and to think about how the larger society might be affected by what I study. That, I believe, is an important “cap” to my liberal arts experience here at Concordia College.
My Capstone Experience: It's Okay Not To Know Everything
Concordia College Moorhead being a liberal arts institution requires its students to take classes outside of the desired area of study we have chosen for ourselves. For a science major such as myself, classes such as writing, religion or a speech are examples. As a final requirement before a student graduates, we have to take a class that fulfills a “capstone” requirement. This class wraps up our time at Concordia and as well as the goals the college had for us during our time here. The course I chose to fulfill this capstone requirement was this Neurochemistry class. The class was unlike any class I have ever taken. And I loved it.
In both large and small college institutions, the normal lecture class consists of a professor rambling on continuously about a subject, maybe a quarter of the kids paying attention and trying to keep up with notes while the rest are sitting there dumbfounded wondering what the heck is going on. That was not the case when it came to this Neurochemistry class. Not only were we collaborating as a class talking about disorders and the science behind them everyday, but our professor was right there learning with us. The way the class worked was over the weekend we were assigned to read a fairly new review article about a specific disorder and bring questions to class about things we didn’t know or understand. It was very common that we would come to class on Mondays looking like a bunch of deer in headlights because we only understood bits and pieces of the entire scientific paper. But then, we tackled it together. Each person was assigned a specific topic from the paper to research for class Wednesday, and on Wednesdays we would “speed date” and teach our topic to the rest of the class in a one-on-one format. Having now understood (hopefully) the bulk of the paper, Fridays were set aside to talk about the disorder and everything from how its affecting society to what should be done next. Fridays were my favorite days because I was not only able to share my opinions about a disorder, but it also gave me time to listen to my peers and their take on what was going on. Once our week on a specific disorder was over, we were then required to share our thoughts on the disorder as well as the science behind it to the rest of the world in the form of a blog post. The entire process would start all over with a different disorder the following week.
I felt like this was the first class that I have taken as an undergraduate student that exposed me to what the real scientific world is like. I say this because science is all about collaboration. Whether that is collaborating to solve a common problem or collaborating to answer a question out of pure curiosity, there is a lot of dialogue between scientists. In this class, all that we did was collaborate. We worked to better understand a paper and disorder that none of us fully understood. With patience we were able to pull together to understand what it was saying. It was a great and new feeling to know that we all really were on the same level with the material and we were able to help each other out to understand it. As a class, we were also able to relay our new information about a disorder to the general public by writing blog posts about them. This too is apart of the scientific world that is not always easy because science is not an easy subject to understand.
I don’t know what this class would have been like if anyone besides our professor Dr. Julie Mach was teaching it. She made sure we knew that it was ok not to understand something and that she wasn’t going to completely understand everything either. The semester before the class begun, Dr. Mach organized a meeting for everyone that had signed up for the class. It was during this meeting that she made it very clear that we needed to be okay with not knowing everything that we needed to be okay talking about science especially the science we didn’t understand. I find this a really important aspect of a capstone class because never are we ever going to understand everything in life once we are on our own and we need to be okay admitting this. It was a breath of fresh air having a class that I went to three days a week in which I was involved in and that I was comfortable enough in to both express my questions and opinions about a disorder. Dr. Mach primed the class in which this was made possible.
In my opinion Neurochemistry was the epitome of a capstone class at Concordia College Moorhead. I loved learning about the disorders we talked about each week, I was able to link the topics directly to society as a whole, my classmates became new friends, it let me practice transmitting scientific information to the rest of the world and it taught me that it was okay not to know everything. I believe this class has prepared me for what the real world of science is like and was the perfect way to “cap off” my career as a Concordia College Student.
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Neurochemistry on the shores, an ocean of science dead ahead
For my last blog post I get the pleasure to describe my experience in neurochemistry. This class has been the most unique chemistry course I have taken in my time at Concordia. Its style, content, and approach are exciting and refreshing in many ways.
First off, the style of neurochemistry was incredibly different from my other chemistry courses. This class is run in a discussion based format, which to be honest I was not a fan of before the start of the class. I found my other discussion based classes at Concordia (outside the sciences) greatly disappointing. My experience with discussion based classes was that it is not necessarily a format where the professor shares their experience and knowledge, but where they merely facilitate discussion that should lead to learning. I understand that this is how a lot of people prefer to learn but I really just love a good lecture where a professor shovels an incredible amount of information onto you and leaves you to make the deeper, more subtle connections in the material. Neurochemistry however, finally achieved what a discussion based course should be, in my opinion. Dr. Mach, our fearless leader, made it clear from the beginning that she was going to bring what she could to the class but that the class format would make it so that she was more of a colleague than a professor. We spent our time reading cutting-edge scientific research that no one, not even the professor, initially understood. We then had to collaborate to elucidate what the authors were trying to make clear and then, most importantly, assess where the scientific research could go from its current state.
Last year I was lucky enough to receive a position as an organic chemist for a laboratory here in Fargo. My supervisor has a PhD and many of my coworkers have advanced degrees of their own. When I joined this team I learned very quickly what it was like to be a scientist in the real world. No longer was I a student and had to have mastery over every aspect of a subject. No longer did I need to know everything. I joined the team with a specific set of skills and unique knowledge to contribute. At my job we tackle problems and run experiments of incredibly varied types. No one that I work with knows everything about what is going on, and we all have to work well together to make advances. This is what real world science looks like. Discoveries are made by teams of unique individuals who contribute their niches of knowledge to solve a problem. Watson and Crick, the two researchers who first elucidated the structure of DNA, needed a keen organic chemist to describe a chemical process for them to finally connect the two strands of thought they were struggling with.
This is why it has been such a pleasure and so much fun to experience a class that finally captures what real life science looks like. It has been a powerful, and humbling, experience to watch my peers and myself tackle complex diseases and problems and come away with a greater understanding for these terrible diseases that afflict our families, friends, and neighbors.
For me, neurochemistry is a launching pad for my scientific career. I am hoping to go to graduate school and attain a PhD in chemistry. My professional life will likely be carried out in this similar format for many many years. For many of my peers however, this will be the only time they experience scientific collaboration like this. This doesn’t cheapen their experience in any way though, as I am sure that physicians and health professionals collaborate in a similar manner.
What an opportunity we have had to experience this collaborative format in our undergraduate studies! And thanks go to you, the reader, for coming along for the ride.
My Capstone Experience
I am very glad that I was able to take NeuroChem as my capstone course because I feel that it was one of the only capstones that I wouldn’t have any trouble being interested in. After hearing from friends how the class was structured I thought that it sounded interesting to be able to learn about a new neurological disease every week. Now after having completed the class I found it to be rather enjoyable and successful as a capstone experience. I found that every week I was looking forward to our new research articles and learning how these different neurological diseases work and possible ways that they can be treated. I felt the our class was a great class because we had a nice wide range of disciplines in the class with chem majors, bio majors, and some psych majors all able to contribute their own unique knowledge base and way of thinking. All our points of view put together allowed me to look at these diseases in different ways that I wouldn’t have before. I also felt that I was able to bring in the knowledge that I have accumulated from my biology and chemistry background allowing me to better understand the chemical pathways of these diseases. I also found that after taking this class I better understand the breadth and severity of some of the different ailments that face millions of people and actually found that in a lot of cases if people knew more about these ailments that they could maybe be prevented or hopefully further studied in order to find potential treatments. I would for sure recommend this class to anyone interested in science, medicine or the brain to take this class as their capstone course because I really did learn a lot about different neurological diseases but I also learned how to read through difficult material and get the most information out of it that I could in order to understand the pathway of the diseases we went through the class.
Farewell to my Loyal Readers (if there are any)
Dear Faithful Readers,
I’d first off like to thank you all for your wonderful loyalty to me and my blogs. Not once did one of you reply to my posts telling me I am a dipstick or a complete fool. Thanks, you really know how to make a kid feel good. I’d also like to thank you for coming along with me on this journey throughout my capstone experience in this my senior year at Concordia College. This class was completely different for me compared to any other that I’ve taken and I’ve got to be honest, I loved it. If you would so indulge me one last time, please let me explain.
The basic format of a lecture is to sit back, shut up and let your professor tell you everything there is to know about their discipline. I am not saying you can’t ask questions and voice your opinion, but it isn’t as common when there’s 30 kids vigorously writing notes trying to keep up. Questions or comments only tend to drive out one of two thoughts that’s on everyone’s mind; either “shut the hell up so we can keep moving” or “thank God someone asked.” This class however was very different. There were no traditional lectures. Everyone was on the same level. The professor was just another student and we did our best to teach each other and develop critical thinking and generate thought-provoking discussions. Every week we would tackle a new review article about a neurological disorder and learn about current research surrounding it. Every article was difficult to understand at first but as a team we tackled every single one and developed the best understanding we could. Once we developed a good understanding of the article, discussion would take place.
Every Friday we would meet and form discussion groups and we’d have guided discussions about everything you can imaging surrounding each disorder. Everything from the scientific basis for a disorder to public policy regarding it, we covered it all. We then would take our discussions and final thoughts and share them with you, our fellow neighbors and friendly readers. We hoped to engage all of you with thought-provoking questions and ideas that sparked interest in learning more about the world we live in. Some of you may have even read about disorders that affect someone close to you and maybe then you were able to better understand that person, maybe not. We hope that with our critical thinking and active engagement with you as readers allowed for more awareness to spread about current issues surrounding these disorders.
Science is commonly a topic which the general public doesn’t really understand. I honestly believe the basic framework of how science is taught is to blame for this. Scientists are experts in what they study and have so much knowledge to offer the world about their findings however they’re incapable to do so in an understandable way. Concordia’s curriculum and the framework of this capstone course prides itself on developing good scientists who can bloom into experts in their field but more importantly, can accurately and successfully communicate that knowledge to those that need it; you, our neighbors and friendly readers. Thank you so much for following along and please, take time to learn more about the world around you any way you can. If you think the world is a beautiful place now, wait until you start to understand it more.
Take Care,
Sebastian
For the longest time, whenever I heard that someone was having a migraine and was unable to do a certain task, my initial reaction was along the lines of… “Well that sucks, but pop some Excedrin, drink a lot of water, and get back to it!” For individuals that have never had a migraine before — like myself — the condition may seem like merely an awful headache. However in reality, the effects reach farther than mere head pain. Symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia are often felt by those afflicted by this troublesome neurovascular disorder. Because none of my family members are affected by migraines and the condition is typically genetically linked (to some degree), I have never, and hopefully never will understand what migraine headaches feel like. However, after learning about what is physically going on in the brain during a migraine attack, I have a much greater respect for those afflicted.
The cause of migraines is still under dispute, and for many, the trigger is very different. Some can be set off by light while others can be set off by sound, etc. A host of different environmental factors can be attributed to causing migraines. However, despite the trigger, the effects are triggered by similar systems and occurrences in the brain.
There are several different structures and systems within the brain have been identified as primary culprits in migraine symptoms. One hypothesis suggests that migraines are triggered by abnormal levels of CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) released into the bloodstream, triggering excessive vasodialation and stimulation of nearby sensory neurons, inducing pain. However the cause of excessive CGRP release is still unknown. The nerve that is most commonly affected is the trigeminal nerve, a cranial nerve with three branches (opthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular) supplying sensory information to parts of the face and head. When CGRP floods the vessels in the head followed by vasodialation, the sensory components of the trigeminal nerve become overactive, causing extreme pain.
Recent drugs such as triptans and gepants have been used to treat migraines, however both have their ups and downs. Triptans work by by causing vasoconstriction and reducing CGRP (causes of the condition) however considerable side effects have been observed such as dizziness, nausea, fatigue, chest symptoms and paresthesia, deterring many from taking the medication. Gepants work by blocking the CGRP receptor. Although they are effective for those who experience side effects of triptans, they can be expensive.
For those who like myself have never experienced a migraine before and see it as just a bad headache, STOP! The condition is very debilitating for those afflicted. Without sufficient knowledge about the condition and what can be done to treat it, additional research must be done to give those with migraines much needed relief.
The Need for a New Migraine Treatment
Migraines are a debilitating neurovascular disorder characterized by frequent headaches, nausea, and sensitivity to light and/or sound among other symptoms. The exact cause of migraines is still unknown but researchers know how some of the symptoms arise and how to target them for treatment. Because it is a neurovascular disorder, the blood vessels in the brain, particularly the Middle Meningeal Artery (MMA), are a big part of the etiology of migraines. When vessels such as the MMA become inflamed and dilated, it can trigger the start of a migraine. This leads to further inflammation of the area around the vessel which leads to the long-lasting headaches felt by migraine sufferers.
Although it is not really known for sure how inflammation of a cerebral blood vessel can cause all of the symptoms seen in migraines, it has become a target for drug makers in an effort to curb the effects of this devastating disorder. Common migraine treatments involve the use of several different drug types. Triptans are used to combat the inflammation and dilation of blood vessels such as the MMA. They work by activating serotonin receptors on the blood vessel to constrict it, as well as serotonin receptors on nerve endings surrounding the vessel to inhibit the release of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules. Because triptans are only treating the dilated and inflamed vessels they are not useful as a precautionary drug and only alleviate the symptoms once they being to take hold.
Some drugs that are in development now to be taken as preventative for migraines involve gepants and glutamate antagonists such as Topiramate. These medications bypass the blood vessel and act directly on the nerve endings to damping their signaling. This, in theory, inhibits the pain reception so migraines are more bearable. The problem with these drugs is that it is not addressing the problem and only working to damping the sensations felt during a migraine. The future of viable migraine treatment hinges on research into the cause of the inflamed blood vessels and a way to stop them from happening in the first place.
More Than Just a Headache
Many people suffer from migraines each year. They can quickly put an end to your day as every sound, sight, and touch can cause nauseating pain. Many people have to take time off from work for migraines and it can drastically reduce one’s daily activities. They can even become dangerous when a sudden attack occurs while driving. What makes them so intense though? Why are they so much more than just your regular headache, and why does it seem like some people will get them twice a week, while others may never have a migraine their entire life?
In order to understand why migraines are so much worse than a regular headache, we must first know what it happening during a migraine. Like many brain disorders, scientists have not yet located the source that triggers a migraine. This is because many migraines are slightly different and the trigger that initiates them can be different for each individual. They do have a good understanding of what occurs during a migraine though and that has helped them treat the symptoms of a migraine.
During a migraine neuropeptides are released into the blood vessels that surround the brain. Since the actual brain doesn’t have pain receptors, the headache pain you feel during a migraine is due to the pain receptors connected to these surrounding blood vessels. One of the neuropeptides released is CGRP. CGRP is responsible for dilation of these vessels and also causes inflammation to occur. When inflammation occurs it over sensitizes the nerve that relays pain from the vessels to the brain called the Trigeminal Nerve. When this nerve is over sensitized it will send intense pain signals when only mildly stimulated. This is what causes most of the migraine symptoms such as pain when sneezing, coughing, bending over, and anything else that may increase pressure in the head and set off this sensitized nerve.
Ways that they have begun treating migraines is by using medications that reduce the dilation and inflammation of CGRP. Two drugs that hinder the effects of CGRP are Triptans and Gepants. Another method is to block the signal sent by the Trigeminal Nerve. This can be done by using Botulin, the chemical used in Botox, which paralyzes the nerve temporarily.
Hopefully scientists will continue to advance in their knowledge of migraines in order to reduce the suffering of those affected by them. Migraines can keep an individual from their daily responsibilities such as work, school, or taking care of their children. Hopefully discoveries in the future will help these people live a life free of this painful ailment.