Artificial protein-DNA conjugates: Increasing the versatility of proteins with the help of DNA

Hey there! This is Lorena, and in this post I will talk about protein-DNA conjugates, as part of the lecture course 🙂 I have recently been working quite a lot with them, so I am very excited to cover some of their aspects

Proteins have incredible properties nobody else in the bio-world has. Their highly complex tertiary structure and the richness of their chemical groups allows them to bind molecules with high affinity and in a very selective way. They are also able to act as very efficient catalysts, showing high substrate turnover ratios. Thus, it is no surprise that proteins attract a great deal of attention and are in high demand for a lot of applications.

Combining research with an active lifestyle

How do you succeed as a scientist? Do you have to be really smart? Well… I would not say it is as much about intelligence as about the ability to keep banging your head against a problem until you happen upon a solution. But it is true, this job does involve a lot of thinking (or at least trying to think), and it is not always easy to stay focused.

Why RNA?

Hey it’s Nestor writing from Aarhus and yes, I will be talking about RNA (again) but this time, instead of a perspective about building nanorobots with it, a bit more biological, related to the current world pandemic. Why do he hear so much about RNA vaccines? We will try to go through that in this post.

To make sure it is understood and for the critic reader, a little scientific mistake has been introduced in this blog post, hopefully you will be able to find, let me know in the comments!

Finding Fulfillment in a land without Struggles

This blogpost will be a little bit different and probably quite introspective. I was born and raised in Venezuela, a Caribbean country, with undoubtedly perfect weather and easy going joyful people. My early life was not necessarily easy, but I had it better than most people. I had high quality education, a family that supported me and never lacked food in the fridge.

The two-body problem

Scientific research is an exercise in failing. Imagine you have to overcome an unknown obstacle course – it is already hard when you can see what you are doing (and where you are going). Now imagine doing that in the dark! This is what most research is like. Many attempts to explore beyond the edge of human knowledge, where we are in the dark, are simply doomed to fail. There is hope though: each failure teaches us a little bit more about the obstacles we will encounter. Bit by bit, more experiments and failures light the way. Until eventually, we happen upon success. Then we write a paper about it, and hope the reviewers agree with our definition of success. A career in academia thus requires dedication, luck, and an unfailing ability to get up after falling down. Most of all, it requires time: time to learn, to struggle, and to do good science.