Wednesday, April 25, 2012

V is for Vesicle

A vesicle is something that is used to carry molecules through the body. Since the body consists of mostly water, these vesicles need to be hydrophilic on the outside, but most molecules in need of transport are hydrophobic, so the inside of the vesicle must be hydrophobic. This means that they can be made from phospholipids. Phospholipids have a hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic body (and they look like sperm).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicle_(biology_and_chemistry)
This is a picture of a liposome. It has a phospholipid bilayer to accommodate hydrophilic molecules.

Since there are so many molecules that need to be transported in the body there are many, many vesicles. The ones that I am most familiar with are those that carry neurotransmitters because that is what I am currently learning about in my psychopharmacology class. In our neurons we have vesicles that take our neurotransmitters to the presynaptic part of the nerve. Once the vesicles reach the destination they push the molecules through their membrane and out into the cytoplasm or cell body (wherever they are, really).

Side note: I have six finals and five quizzes, one lab report, one essay, and one project all this week. The problem is that I can think of about a hundred things more thrilling than studying. How do you study? Any tips or suggestions that make for good studying habits?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your very busy week! Just have to rock and roll and get them out of the way.

Gossip_Grl said...

When I took Management Classes it had been a long time since I was in school. I took lots of notes and it helped when the instructor told us the first class that if she put it on the easel it would be on the test. I studied from my notes and re-read notes the morning of a test.

Rebecka Vigus said...

I have learned things reading your blogs that I never would have known. Thanks for doing it this way.

Miss H said...

I have to study too and I'm finding it incredibly hard too! So any tips you get please share them my way lol!

Guilie Castillo said...

Nice post! I love this stuff--would have loved to major in Biology, or even go to med school. *Sigh*. In my next life :)

Studying... Jen, I was never any good at it. Mostly I winged it, and got lucky. On the other hand, with the stuff that really did interest me I could spend hours poring over books and notes and doing extra research in the library. Maybe you can find something exciting in these things you need to study or prepare for and focus on that?

Good luck!

PR said...

Huh lol! I love studying - I find doing it outside is always refreshing, and definitely keep stocked up with highlighters and post its, an absolute must have if you want decent notes. Chocolate helps with study too, I think! :)

Unknown said...

Stephen - Very true! Sometimes it feels very hard to do though.

Gossip_Grl - Thanks for the advice, reading over notes the morning of the test is a really good idea

Rebecka - Thank you for visiting, I'm glad you learned something!

Hazel - The first thing that I learned at college was if you put the time in, you should be ok. Good luck!!

Guilie - Thank you! That is a really good way to look at studying

Anna - Chocolate is probably my favorite study buddy. Second only to highlighters. Thanks for the advice!!