After an exigent electrophysiology campaign, here are some updates! To quote Logan Roy: Everything everywhere is always moving forever (there is no intonation makes this quote any less scathing lol) Cover art is from Succession; title inspired by my 30th birthday, losing 30 lbs, and Drake.

Family

My girlfriend and I hosted Thanksgiving for our families! I spent the whole day cooking, but in the end it was a lot of fun. The most important dish was The Kitchenista’s baked mac and cheese, since its my little brother’s favorite food. Aside from that, I was able to go on my morning run with my dad while he was out here, which is kind of a tradition we have.

Italy

I went to Italy (big boosted!) in December. My girlfriend won a travel award for a conference in Florence, and I figured it was an opportunity to see the world. I ate a lot of food (BUT! didn’t gain too much weight cuz I counted calories and worked out) I took mad pics, saw a lot of art, and found more frogs!

Paper published, under review, and in progress (or EPHYS EPHYS EPHYS) plus RSA 2022

The first paper of 2022 from our lab is officially published in Neurobiology of Disease (I’m 2nd author!) In this study, we looked at glucocorticoid receptors (GR) signaling in alcohol use disorder (AUD), since increased GR signaling and changes in GR-mediated transcriptional activity in the rat central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) has been shown to be associated with acute alcohol withdrawal and protracted abstinence in dependent rats. Other studies have shown that the GR antagonist mifepristone decreases alcohol consumption in dependent rats during acute withdrawal and protracted abstinence, but whether this effect is mediated by GR regulation of CeA synaptic activity unknown. For this reason, we used mifepristone and the selective GR antagonist CORT118335 (both at 10 μM) as pharmacological tools to dissect the role of GR on GABA transmission in male, adult Sprague-Dawley rats using slice electrophysiology. Rats went through chronic intermittent alcohol vapor exposure for 5–7 weeks to induce alcohol dependence, and a subset of those underwent protracted alcohol withdrawal for 2 weeks, while air-exposed rats served as controls. We found that Mifepristone reduced the frequency of pharmacologically isolated spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSC) in the CeA (medial subdivision) without affecting postsynaptic measures in all groups, suggesting decreased GABA release with the largest effect in dependent rats. CORT118335 did not significantly alter GABA transmission in naïve rats but decreased sIPSC frequency in dependent rats. Similarly, mifepristone decreased the amplitude of evoked inhibitory postsynaptic potentials of dependent and protracted withdrawal rats. Collectively, our study provides insight into the regulation of CeA GABAergic synapses by GR and shows that the efficacy of mifepristone and CORT118335 is enhanced by chronic ethanol exposure, highlighting the potential of drugs targeting GR as a promising target for treating AUD.

I started collecting data for this paper as soon as I learned patch-clamp, and it’s great to see it finally out! Another paper I helped on is under review, and I’m working on my first 1st author submission as a postdoc. Lastly, I submitted an abstract for RSA 2022. I can’t say too much since we’re also working on publishing that paper too, but it’s pretty dope. Check back in June-July 2022 for more info. Lots of news coming soon!

Nucleate Startup Activator

In November, I applied for Nucleate’s 2022 Activator program for startups in San Diego as a business applicant. In December, I matched with a team, and while I was in Italy, we pitched to Nucleate SD and were selected as finalists for the 2022 cohort!

It goes without saying that I believe in the science and team, so what led me to apply? Well in addition to science, what keeps me up at night and gets me out of bed in the morning is a simple question: how do you launch a successful pharmaceutical company*? This question has been on my mind since I started college, and I’ve tried to prepare as best I could: PhD in Pharmacology, Regulatory Science Master’s degree, business classes at the Marshall School of Business, blah blah blah. I’m plugged into biotech/pharma twitter, I’ve been to countless networking events, and have tried to soak up as much advice as I could. Let’s find out IRL.

* it should go without saying that this company would be developing drugs that have a major impact in patients’ lives, but I will say it anyway

Pay raise and not stonk advice quotes

My postdoc salary was again raised at the beginning of the year, and I’m now making ~$62,000 pretax. For stocks, I don’t want to say anything cuz when I post about how I’m doing, there’s usually a market reversal, although since starting this post, a re-reversal doesn’t sound too bad. Biotech underwent a market correction, but despite my scientific interest, I don’t invest in the sector. Why? Think Joshua Boger on Wall Street from The Billion Dollar Molecule.

My “strategy” is not investment advice and buys $110 of Vanguard ETFs each day while I patch neurons all day (excluding my grad school gains which is also not investment advice and is sits in FAANGM.) My position on web3 (Crypto, NFTs, DAOs, DeSci) is not investment advice either, its agnostic, which is the most fun IMO. Maybe it will be the greatest societal benefit ever; maybe its a case of Occam’s duct tape. Two quotes immediately come to mind: 1) How is twitter free? **Hint: It’s not free** 2) From The Billion Dollar Molecule (Glaxo to Boger) “Arrogance doesn’t disturb or impress us. We understand arrogance.” Who is who in this situation? Only time will tell, which brings me to a few more quotes: “spend time in the market don’t time the market” and “Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know” (Liar’s Poker.) Remember: No tears! (Liar’s Poker again.)

Hiphop

It was a dope year for hiphop. Some of the tracks that helped me patch cells and do science in 2021 were: Family Ties (Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar), Jail (Kanye West and Jay-Z), Heaven freestyle (J. Cole), Little Havana (Rick Ross), Corso (Tyler, the Creator), That’s the Game (Stove God Cooks), You Only Live Twice (Drake, Ross, and Wayne), Are You With That? (Vince Staples), Nas is Good (Nas), Flood the block (Benny the Butcher), Name ring bell (Wale), Blue Notes 2 (Meek Mill), and many more.

Also, I’ve been a Joe Budden Podcast Friend of the Show tier Patronie since March. The pod definitely makes patching neurons easier and go me through grad school (my weekends were full of podding and PCRs.) Hopefully I can go to a live pod someday and get my dissertation signed.

Health and fitness

Last and certainly least (says academia, not me tho!): general health updates! I’ve lost about 30 lbs since January 2021 mostly by counting calories. Again, I eat Pizza Hut every Sunday, In-n-out at least once a week (3 protein-style double-doubles = 1500 calories), and have a protein breakfast every weekday, but YMMV. The fastest progress came early in the year when I was restructuring recipes to be low-calorie.Halfway through the year (during the ephys campagin!) I stopped coming up with new recipes, but its still decent progress. I also started running a mile in the morning once a week, then twice a week, then every weekday, etc. I’m up to 2 miles everyday, nonstop; its fun.

Also I’m 30 now; what a trip. I don’t really have any advice aside from invest in your health, your wealth, and yourself. Also, as I get older, I appreciate Drake’s Say What’s Real more and more:

• “I can’t live and hold the camera, somebody’s gotta tape this”

• “Don’t ever forget the moment you began to doubt/ transitioning from fitting in to standing out”

• “Always said I’d say it all on the right track/ but in this game you only lose when you fight back”

Resolutions?

Transition to a role in the pharmaceutical industry. Give back to my community college (shout out to DC3!!!) Also, pick up some of my old hobbies again. Last year I bought a PS3, fixed an old PS2, and have been revisiting some of the video games I played growing up (Resistance, Ratchet and Clank, Metal Gear Solid, Bioshock (Plasmids!!!), Fallout 3/New Vegas, etc.) I’d like to bring my old Z31 to San Diego and fix it up, but I don’t have a garage to work on it. Maybe I’ll start with my moped (Yamaha QT50), although I already maxed it out during grad school (60 mph!!!!)