01 November, 2007

Not-quite-right-in-the-head Syndrome (NQRITHS)

So I think I might be not quite right. In the head. In fact, I may indeed be afflicted with NQRITHS, an increasingly common disorder among scientists the world over. The symptoms:

1) Found this news story about an E. Coli breakout in frozen pizza pepperoni. My first reaction wasn't "Oh, how terrible, people are going to get sick!". No, my first reaction was "Cool! What strain? What strain!?". It was O157:H7, Biohazard Safety Level 2+. Not only does O157:H7 have cool tir ligands that lead to inflammatory effacement of the gastrointestinal epitelia (tir is secreted by a Type III secretion system [bacterial nail gun] and causes actin realignment in the cell that it effaces), but it also is an STEC, which means that it produces Shiga toxin. Shiga toxin, very deadly, has been implicated in the renal pathology (makes your kidney cells bleed) of severe E. Coli infections.

2) That I know all of the information above off the top of my head.

3) Shiny = happy.

4) That things like lactose and (1>3)-beta-D-glucan really piss me off, but for very different reasons.

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