Welcome Joel!

I don't understand why time flies so quickly these days... but I guess it is a good sign, at least there have been or will be soon several graduations, as Unna and Riina have finished everything in their Master programme and they wrapped up nicely the OATP2B1 project, or should I say 2 parallel projects. Of course, there are still minor things to continue before we can write the manuscripts of those results, but it is looking good at the moment in that field! Also, Jerry and Sanni had their master's thesis seminars this week, so getting closer to graduation (and of course I forgot to take photos...).

Also, last week, a new member and Ph.D. student, Joel, started in our group, and to keep us above the surface, Joel will do synthesis, starting with Juuso's CAT1-derivatives, but the aim of his Ph.D. will be purely on computational studies on OATP1B1/1B3. But more about that later, as we will kick that off, once we get other synthetic things rolling smoothly, but anyway, welcome to the team! So, 3 new group members gained, one lost in the past 8 months or so, we are on the positive side! 😎

 

New Lectures, New Knowledge?

I have lately spent a lot of time renewing my lectures for the next year, and one thing that I have increased from the last year is (of course), the prodrug design with everyday examples. One classic example of successfully improved solubility is the powerful, fast-acting intravenous (IV) anesthetic, propofol, primarily used to induce and maintain general anesthesia for surgery, and its water-soluble prodrug, phospropofol. Despite the success, I had to face propofol and its soil-based emulsion this spring. The surgical nurse wanted to calm the situation for my daughter and told her that she would be given a sleeping milk or "milk of amnesia" as they call it, by showing the syringe of white emulsion. I couldn't help myself, and I cried out, "Is that propofol?" and the whole staff in the surgery room turned towards me with big question marks on their faces. Afterwards, I heard that it was a relatively rare question in the surgery room, and the anesthesiologist wanted to clear up why I was so scared. And then I, of course, told him about the phospropofol, which I thought would already be a standard practise (obviously not), since it was approved by FDA almost 20 years ago. But I was also amazed to realize that he hadn't even heard about it. Then, I just simply concluded that I would prefer to have a clear solution in my veins. 😏 And after that, I wanted to take this example to my next year's class. 

 

Source: https://e-safe-anaesthesia.org

 

Happy Wappu!

I can't believe that 1st of May is already approaching! We of course had the traditional mead and donuts in our coffee room, but of course I forgot to take any photos. Well, I decided to continue the celebration back home! 😎 What has kept us really busy is the graduating students, of course, but also planning the next semester's teaching, grant application, and some evaluations have taken some time. But spring has approached, earlier than even, and despite the blackberry winter last week, it starts to get greenish around us. I'm not sure whether it is the age or the farmer genes that I have, but I have noticed that I have slightly engaged myself with crops and stuff... Last year, it was a small greenhouse; this year, seeds ordered in the middle of winter from Sweden; next year, who knows... 😍 Anyway, happy Wappu (1st of May) for everyone! Well-deserved holiday, for the hard work we have put in! I hope it will reward us with a couple of critical papers soon, but also a couple of Ph.D. graduations within the next 12 months!