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Old drugs, new mechanisms
A recent review by Vandevoorde in Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry states that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are inhibitors of endocannabinoid metabolism. This drug class includes ibuprofen (sold as Nurofen and Advil in Australia) and indomethacin (sold as Indocid), both used for inflammatory pain and arthritic conditions. It ( Read more... ) -
For meleah
A journal devoted to promoting the teaching of evolutionary theory in classrooms - now there's a reason to be on Myspace ;)
http://www.myspace.com/springer_evoo -
Endocannabinoids and Addiction
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has some pretty cool little sets of Powerpoint slides for teaching the basics of how drugs of abuse work and the current hypotheses on the neural mechanisms of addiction ( Read more... ) -
IBRO summary
IBRO was a good meeting. Many people were not keen to go since it has such a broad focus. Also the cost was a little prohibitive - it was an international meeting with registration costs in kind, but it was in Melbourne so it felt to some like a really expensive deal for not a great reward. Not exactly a sunny location for a conference for the ( Read more... ) -
Amplification
It's nice to be working from home. I have the radio on, a pot of tea, a Lindt bunny, and a cat. All are distracting from the qPCR results in front of me ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
The adrenaline ELISA is getting there. The replicates on the second trial run were nice and tight, but the concentration of the unknown was higher than the highest standard so it needs further dilution next time - unexpected giving it was already diluted 1 in 5 but perhaps also expected given it came from a femoral catheter rather than a cardiac ( Read more... ) -
Beer
I'm working with a beer trolley these days. It's 32 60 ml syringes connected to plastic tubing that feeds through a hollow mouthpiece from which a rat can lick and receive a drip of fluid. There is a valve on the tubing that opens or closes and controls fluid flow. When the rat licks three times on the mouthpiece the valve will be switched to open ( Read more... ) -
New word
Piezoelectricity: Electric current generated by mechanical stress on crystals with dielectric properties, such as quartz, mica and calcite. Conversely, piezolectric also refers to the generation of stress in such crystals subjected to an applied voltage.
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Cannabinoid advances
The ICRS website is new and improved; it features a monthly link to the webpage of a cannabinoid researcher and highlights two or three important new cannabinoid articles. This month it highlights two items that are close to but do not quite achieve answers to a few important questions ( Read more... ) -
Wow.
There are two cannabinoid receptors that have been characterised to date, to which endogenous, synthetic and plant cannabinoids bind to produce physiological effects. CB1 receptors are abundantly expressed in the brain and are also expressed in numerous peripheral organs such as the prostate and testis, eye, small intestine and placenta. CB2 ( Read more... )