Some projects are long-lasting

The text below was originally posted in March 2021 or so, but the blogger removed it, because inappropriate content! OK, I've got it, it was done by a robot, since it was then restored by the blogger team. In future, I need to select my words more wisely! 😂

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I had an idea a long time ago, I cannot recall it exactly, but somewhere around 2012-2013. Then we needed to get a funding to execute the idea, that actually took relatively short period of time, as we were able to include that idea to a part of a grant that was about the be awarded at the same time in 2014. Then the real work started. After failed attempts, we finally gained a lot of nice data during 2015-2016, but the original hypothesis was not met, which meant that the publications was very hard to conclude or even write about, not to mention how hard it was to be accepted and published. Well, the most of the time we spend thinking how to pull everything together, and that took roughly 3 years. 😆 OK, I think everyone of us just wanted to forgot the project. But in 2019, we activated and started to write the manuscript and in 2020 we submitted the first version, which gained a lot of critic, of course, but I must thank for the reviewers, as this time (which definitely doesn't happen too often these days) we got a very constructive feedback that help us a lot to improve the content of the manuscript. And to our surprise the second attempt only the the second journal choice of us (International Journal of Pharmaceutics) was successful and this paper is now out to be read, in 2021. So from the idea to published results and communication, it took 8-9 years. But well done team! Thank you for all the co-authors for your efforts, mainly to the corresponding one, Aaro!

If you want to find out what is was all about, the final conclusion was that there is species differences in intrabrain distribution of L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1)-utilizing prodrugs between mice and rats, but mainly because of the expression and localization of bioconverting enzymes rather than expression levels of LAT1 in the brain. 

See more from this link.

 

 

Cold February

February is always short and in February the winter holiday period starts in Finland. We also had a short vacation with the kids in the Lapland before the rush (school breaks) started. Well, on the border of the Lapland, in Ruka (near Kuusamo city). Of course, it is impossible to have a full break during such a high scientific season, but I noticed that I wasn't the only one who was working distantly from the Lapland! 😅 As it was such a cold week (16-28 Celsius degrees), it was impossible anyway to do downhill skiing or cross-country skiing for full days. So it was pretty convenient to to enjoy the sports in the morning and then have meeting in front of the log-fire. 

But perhaps due to such a cold week and a lot of outdoor sports, I got a flu. And yes, I took the corona-test and it was luckily negative. I must say that everything was organized in Ruka Ski Resort very well , e.g. the area where you had to queue the ski-lifts were spread widely, so that people would have enough distance to each others. But despite the heavy use of face-masks and hand-sanitizers, still I've got a bug... But then again, it seemed that my youngest kid had also very mild symptoms, so perhaps she carried it from the daycare, an unavoidable chain! Anyway, after slow recovery, we are now heading to the March, which will be full of different scientific events! And since my teaching (synthesis laboratory course) was cancelled from this spring, I have time to do some research also in March! 😎

Fishing of better future?

I'm so happy that we have a such a nice winter in Kuopio this year. The trees have been white at least for the 5 weeks in a row now, and we have had temperatures between 10-20 degrees, so real winter, which has not been the case in the past few years. To show our postdoc (who arrived in Finland in last October) the real Finnish winter sports and how we scientist make our living 😉, I took him to ice fishing. Despite the low temperatures, we have warmer period during the Christmas and therefore a there was a water layer above the ice and below the snow. And thus, it was not-so-nice to walk on the ice. Luckily, we went to place (Rauhalahti camping area), where you can do ice-fishing from the boat-platform. And as a responsible "superviser" I felt I need to show how one can earn daily living free-of-charge, just in case one happens to run out of the funding! 😆😂😜 And since by science, it really hard to make real money!