At the start of lockdown last year, I downloaded #TikTok and I’ve been hooked ever since! My own videos are a mix of “life in the lab”, some singing & music, and a generous helping of silliness 😁 vm.tiktok.com/ZMeqjhy3c/
I’ve really enjoyed being part of the science community there over the past year — here are a few of the amazing scientist creators on TikTok ⤵️
.@LastWeekTonight did a great piece on bias in medicine in 2019 that features an excerpt of an interview with Larry Cahill from a 60 Minutes story ("Sex Matters" in 2014).
Larry Cahill wrote a great response to Gina Rippon's "The Gendered Brain" -- a tweet from the amazing @Docbecca explains...
Hello all! @NeuroErinPhD here - I’m thrilled to be curating the feed this week. Here's an intro thread on my journey in science…🧵(1/7)
I'm a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at University College Cork, Ireland @AnatNeuroUCC. My research in the lab of Dr. Olivia O'Leary focuses on sex differences in stress-related psychiatric illness and developing novel therapeutic targets (2/7)
So how did an American neuroscientist get a job in Cork? The power of #sciencetwitter, of course! I saw @oliviafoleary's postdoc ad mentioning stress, sex differences, & adolescence...and I had to reach out! 3 years later, I’m living in Cork doing science with awesome people. 3/7
Ok so I had a rather hectic evening, but now let's talk about simulating proteins!
First of all, what's a protein?
Protein's are large biological molecules that are responsible for a myriad of different processes in living things. Feel hungry? In pain? Taste something sweet? Feeling an emotion? All of these things are controlled by a vast array of proteins!
Proteins are amazing! Each one is highly specialised to carry out a specific task, what's incredible is that all proteins are made from the same building blocks called amino acids (AAs).
In the context of QM calculations we have to assess whether the level of theory we are using is appropriate. Perhaps we could use a cheaper ab initio, semi-empirical, or DFT method. The choice depends on the question and system!
Also: basis sets
Without going into too much detail, basis sets help to describe the shape and behaviour of electrons around certain atoms. We can make them really detailed (i.e. model every electron) or just model the important ones (ones involved in bonding etc)