Avoid patent filing catastrophe

Here's a great write-up on how to avoid patent filing mishaps under the new America Invents Act. http://bit.ly/AiU9I0 This is co-written by an expert I personally know. Sometimes I still can't believe how my husband and I have really diverged in paths careerwise, but in many ways converged as well. Strangely, I find myself interacting with plenty of patent chemists and IP lawyers more and more these days. Maybe it's just hip to be patent knowledgeable nowadays too. So, it's good that I know bits and pieces of law stuff which I learned solely through diffusion at home. Anyway, check out the article - it could even be useful to researchers once you get past the jargons.  As for me, I have a Patent 101 class over dinner.

The perks of working at home

As a semi-social creature, I cannot imagine working at home all the time.  BUT, I have to admit that there definitely are perks. With 2 hours of commute + morning rush preparation out of the schedule,  I can allocate my time to something else... like some kitchen synthesis.


My parents sent me a bottle of ube (purple yam) jam - from Good Shepherds, no less. And I wanted to do something special with it. Hence, ube cake roll.  Amazing that my roll didn't break! Chemist's hands, what can I say?  And the final product is pink because I couldn't find my box of food colors. So, this is the real deal, folks.

After a few hours of continuous work, I needed a break.  Ah! I've been meaning to put Tamar's foot artwork in a frame. So, here are the before and after photos.

After another four hours of work, it's time to think about dinner. I found luscious and gigantic green peppers at the Asian store when I did the grocery yesterday that I had no choice but to make stuffed peppers tonight. They've been calling to me all day. Tomatoes, ground turkey, rice, cilantro, a little bit of this, plus a pinch of that, and they're set to go! They were so delicious, there's no "after" photo. They were devoured in nanoseconds while still at 375 F.

Finally, to cap the day, a glass of Tempranillo.

A new lesson plan on drug discovery

It seems that we (medicinal chemists) can get easily lost in the Pharma industry whirlwild when we describe drug discovery.  But could it be that the future still depends on the efforts from Academe? Here's a novel Viewpoint describing the benefits of industrial–academic collaboration towards drug discovery research. At least we can all agree that the field is evolving, and this is just an example of how "we" continue to find ways to keep up with the ever-changing times.

My grandfather's memory

           When I was little, my grandfather told me stories of the war that he survived. I can still hear the tremble in his voice and the far away look he’d get when he told his stories of the World War II in the East. He spoke about selling his wedding band for a morsel of bread, the excruciating Bataan death march, and how he miraculously found a hole from which to breathe in a train packed with dying fellow soldiers. My grandfather fought alongside the Americans. He and his brother were captured by the Japanese army in the  World War II in the East.  That was the last time he saw his brother.

As we sat on the wooden steps of their house, lolo’s stories became grander at times; he saved a young Ferdinand Marcos by shooting from a tree - with his bayonet still attached - before he was shot on his butt and stabbed in the belly.  He had the scars to prove it, which made it difficult to identify what was real and what he made up to impress his wide-eyed granddaughter.

           But not all our shared memories were about the war.  You see, my grandparents took care of me in my younger years, and I have been a lolo's girl ever since.  My fondest memories of him include his magic trick where he would put a beetle to sleep on his palm. He would then tie one leg with a string and when it woke up, it flew around me as if on a leash.  My own personal beetle pet, bug balloon, or whatever you want to call it.

Time passed, I moved with my parents in the city and studied, and my grandfather grew older. Slowly his hearing weakened, but we still told stories from my youth as we sat in the same wooden steps that he himself installed in their home even before my mother was born. In each visit, it was apparent that he was going senile, asking the same questions, which I patiently answered.  It was sad to see it unfold, but he bore it with a smile. Then came the diagnosis: Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, which causes progressive loss of intellectual and social skills. In Alzheimer’s disease, the brain cells degenerate, which leads to memory loss. As lolo’s problem solving ability and coherence came out of focus, my grandfather stopped doing crossword puzzles, his favorite hobby. While he went on with his daily routine, we observed the lapses. He would forget that he already fed the rabbit, so he would feed it again, and again, until his rabbit grew as big as a dog. That was one happy rabbit.

My lola (grandmother) pretended to be irritated with his growing senility and passing tantrums, but she accepted it. Sadly, a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease gets disoriented and loses their sense of time.  So while he always remembered my lola, eventually, lolo forgot the names of his children who he has not seen for a long time, sometimes mistaking me for one of them. We also observed his decreased interest in reading the newspaper, and the quiver in his formerly beautiful cursive handwriting. The deterioration in reading and writing are also tell-tale signs of the disease.  What he enjoyed was telling stories of when he was young: wooing the ladies, and fighting in the war. And I listened; I wanted to hear it all before all was lost from his memory.

While the cause of this disease is unknown, scientists believe that it’s a combination of genetics, lifestyle, and the environment.  Typically, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are indistinguishable from normal signs of aging.  And at present, a definite diagnosis can be determined only after histopathological examinations performed post-mortem. Two types of abnormalities, called senility plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, are evident in brain tissues and passed as hallmarks for Alzheimer’s disease. Plaques are clumps of amyloid protein that interfere with cell-to-cell communication, while tangles are twisted proteins that lead to failure in transport of nutrients and essential materials in the brain. Over time, the plaques and tangles accumulate in the brain parenchyma and artery walls, resulting in the loss of homeostasis in the brain, and yes, loss of my beloved lolo’s memory and coherence.

Exactly, how debilitating is Alzheimer’s disease?  That is hard to quantify, but what most people don’t know is that it can be so devastating that even the olfactory structures can be affected, and the odor threshold is weakened. In layman’s term, Alzheimer’s patients lose their sense of smell. But as other symptoms predominate, patients rarely complain of the sensory deficits they experience.

I would like to think that treatment and cure for this disease are not far off as research funding continues to pour and researches at Pharmaceutical industries are quickly gaining ground.  After all, a staggering 35 million individuals suffer from this disease worldwide - a big red banner asking for help.  A cure would mean that aging people with Alzheimer’s disease will be able to live a normal lifestyle, communicate their needs, be respected by society - as any individual has a right to be.  But most importantly, they will remember the names of their loved ones.

On lucid days, towards the end, lolo’s acceptance of his condition was apparent.  Tears of joy and sorrow flowed freely as he got visits from his children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren. He passed away one month shy of his 100^th birthday.  I can still hear him quote his hero, MacArthur: Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.  But I, for one, wish they didn’t have to fade. 

What's in store for drug discovery?

With pharma companies cutting jobs left and right, all the med chem discussion groups have their ears turned up and are paying close attention to the dwindling chem jobs.  Here's an interesting read on what possibly lies ahead.  http://bit.ly/wbnR6n

Football physics

What best way to start off the 2012 than to write about 2 things I like: Science + Football. You may not think that there's much correlation between the two, but Science is a-brimming on that 120-yard field, and every football Sunday can be a teaching opportunity.  A throw, a punt, or a field goal kick are perfect examples of parabolic paths, as gravity acts on the ball pulling it to the ground.  For my child, the future looks bright indeed, at least in Physics... and in football.but time is running short, and football season is coming to a close. So enjoy the bowls and the playoffs, and here's to hoping for another great "learning" season beginning in Fall 2012!

When I freshly hopped off the boat plane, I knew absolutely nothing about this sport.  The very first time I watched the game on TV was memorable because it was a) the first time I had Entemann's donut, and b) I was so traumatized by all the hits and sacks that I had to watch peeping through my fingers.  It reminded me of the old Batman series with balloon captions "Ka-pow!" "Bam!" and "Zing!"  My then-boyfriend and now-husband would pry my hands open and laugh as I cringed in a corner, holding on to my donut for dear life. I couldn't understand how anyone would survive such a pile up. And over what? An odd-shaped ball! (I learned about the multi-million dollar salaries later.) 

Needless to say, I feel differently now.  Somewhere, somehow, something changed. I saw the leaps, bounces, and tackles as graceful choreography.  If I knew how to play the violin, I would provide glorious background music during replays and at key moments.  Caught the ball with two toes inside the line?  Let me play "Chariots of Fire" for you!  Down by seven with 29 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter? Here's my string rendition of “No Surrender."

Like a good student, first came the questions.  Why the odd-shaped ball?  How can the place kicker put a 56-yarder inside the uprights? How does anyone stop a 250-lb running back moving at full speed? Why don't their necks ever snap? Why is Tom Brady so good looking?  But I digress.  Then came the observations, and I began watching this favorite American game through rose colored lab-goggles.

How about you?  Ever wondered about the football's ellipsoid shape? That's a prolate spheroid to us nerds or an egg shape of sort to the rest of you.  Before football, the only ball shape I knew was the spherical kind. But when I watch this game, I'm in awe at how this unique shape renders the ball more aerodynamic, easier to throw and catch, and less predictable in bouncing, which makes for an exciting game.  A well thrown ball rotates in its long axis of symmetry in flight, and the quarterback in motion or standing in the pocket will have to apply a different vector - a combination of speed and direction - to accurately send the ball to the receiver, especially to hit a running target.  And then, there’s air drag to think of.  Air drag depends on weather and altitude. So the same ball thrown will travel farther in mile-high Denver than it will in sea-level Meadowlands.  Is that why the NY Jets lost to the Denver Broncos?  Maybe every coach needs a physicist on their staff!

Football also offers wonderful examples of Newton's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd laws of motion. Newton's first law is the law of inertia: A running back in motion remains in motion until flattened by Desmond Bishop. I always think of Newton's second law, Force = mass x acceleration, whenever I see a running back about to cross the goal line for a touchdown and his O-line bumps him from behind (those centers have lots of mass!) giving that extra "Oomph" to earn the few inches against a resisting defensive line.  As for Newton's third, “for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction,” just look at the faces of Redskins fans every time Rex Grossman throws an interception.  Ok, maybe not quite the scientific example you were looking for.

Then there's the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions. Whoever has more momentum on contact pushes the other backward or forward in an elastic collision. But if the guard holds onto a pass rusher, that's inelastic collision, with a ten yard penalty.  To hold steady while blocking, linemen crouch low, which keeps their center of mass close to the ground, rendering them immovable as boulders.

There’s more to think about, like how helmets act in the distribution of force to protect the players, and the how the different coefficients of friction of turfs affects the run game, but there's little time left and football season is coming to a close. So enjoy the bowls and playoff games, and here's to hoping for another great season of "learning" in Fall 2012. Cheers!

Deconstructing your Thanksgiving plate

If you LOVE Thanksgiving, and it's your favorite holiday, and you enjoy the cornucopia of fruit and vegetables and the mouth-watering turkey, then STOP reading this now.  For the brave souls willing to subject their plates to deconstruction and sacrifice their appetites for the meager food for thought, carry on.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, some of us are already watching the weekly circulars and planning the holiday menu in our heads. What will be on your plate this year?  The traditional mashed potatoes, stuffing, creamed corn, butternut squash, cranberry sauce and, of course, turkey, perhaps? While this tradition seems unchanging in our eyes, as we look forward to bubbie's disintegrating holiday turkey recipe card, I assure you that much has changed since 1621 when the Plymouth Pilgrims broke bread with the Native Americans in gratitude for the year's harvest.  In fact, while the plate looks similar between now and 20 years ago, the components of these plates are as different as can be. Your plate today most likely contain sweet corn which is about 6x as sweet as the variety that the Pilgrims ate, starchier potato that has less sugar and water content, a virus-resistant squash, a giant turkey with abnormally big breast and scrawny extremities, and cranberries from cans - for some.

Sorry to disappoint you, but as a scientist, I generally do not have a problem with genetically modified crops.  After all, I've done cloning, and genetically engineered virus DNAs in the pursuit of understanding how we can come up with better therapeutics.  As a given, I believe that biotechnology has a place in agriculture and, ergo, on my plate.  Against a declining land area available for crops and livestock, biotechnology has increased the yield of produce, improved nutritional quality of food and reduced crop losses. Where I grew up, the farmers are the ones who beg for help with with the institution of genetic engineering as typhoons, bugs and diseases bombard their crops. And while backyard farming is ideal for folks who have green thumbs to match their yards, the truth remains that biotechnology helps feed the nearly 7 billion people in this world, 3 billion of whom are micronutrient malnourished. I can understand the consumer skepticism, for, while genetically modified plants are beneficial to farmers, it is not necessarily so for consumers. But science has plowed through. For one, crops have been biofortified with beta-carotene to address the vitamin A deficiency in developing countries, saving children from the threat of blindness and premature death. 

          But, you see, my real beef is with the bird. With most Americans preferring white meat over dark meat, industry has called upon science's aid to selectively breed big breasted birds and poultry diet engineered to promote breast growth.  Mind you, the pop-up timer is not genetically encoded. Today's turkeys are so different that if Ben Franklin was alive, he would be wondering what we did to the "respectable Bird" that he knew. We’ve created Franken-bird! These industry-bred turkeys have unusually large breasts, which look like round bowling balls, so disproportionate with their bodies that they cannot stand, walk or mate.  They just sit in their barn, they breed by artificial insemination, and with clipped beaks, they eat, eat, eat!  While free-range heritage turkeys take about 28 week to mature, their Super-sized, abnormally fast-growing cousins reach the slaughterhouse in just 12 weeks. Now, don't you wish you stopped reading when I warned you?

            I am grateful that my religion require that animals must be killed with respect and compassion. But I can carry this further, by caring how the meat is raised which is part of teaching kindness to animals.  So, on Thanksgiving, I might pay a bit more for Kosher free-range turkey. If not, there's always Tofurkey, and pile on another serving of the transgenic squash and silently give thanks for its resistance to the squash mosaic virus.