What’s the future of antihistamines?
This feels a little weird. Here we go. Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:In person. We are recording in person.
Jam:Yep. Can you believe it?
Melissa:I can't believe it. It's so weird. We haven't recorded together in person, face to face in about 14 months.
Jam:Yeah. And even then, I don't know if we knew for sure it was gonna be the last time that we recorded in person, but we thought about it and then grabbed all the stuff from your old office Mhmm. Just in case. But we had not done any planning at all. It wasn't like, hey.
Jam:If this happens, here's how you record on your own, Melissa. Like, we didn't do any of that stuff.
Melissa:No. You had to walk me through it on my old computer
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That was About 12 years old or whatever. And it was good that we grabbed everything because when lockdown happened, It was locked down. I was not allowed to go on campus.
Jam:Right. Yeah. Gosh, dude. That's crazy. Well, I think we did take a photo.
Jam:We often did, like, just selfies. Mhmm. On recording days for Instagram. So I think we actually do have a photo of the very last time we recorded in person.
Melissa:Is I wearing a red sweater? I think I remember that.
Jam:I think so.
Melissa:Well, maybe we'll find that and post it, and then we take a selfie today so you can see then and now and how much we've Aged and changed.
Jam:Yeah. Way more wrinkles, bags under our eyes, all that stuff.
Melissa:The weight of COVID on our shoulders. Yeah.
Jam:Both of our hair I don't know if you guys have seen this in a while, but Mitt Wilson and I both, our hair's gone completely gray.
Melissa:That's why I'm wearing a hat so you can't tell. Okay, Jim. Onto the chemistry.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So as promised today, we are going to be talking about some recent research related to histamines and antihistamines.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So all this research is done in the last 10 ish years. It's not exhaustive.
Jam:K.
Melissa:It's just the ones that I thought were the most interesting, that I
Jam:was the most excited by. Okay.
Melissa:And then there's 1 that I'm really excited about, but I saved it for last just to keep you on your toes.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:I think all of them are really cool, and I received a few requests from this, especially from listener Nikki Inn.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I Wanted to honor that request and to give you guys some more of the current research going on in chemistry.
Jam:Sweet. Looking forward to it.
Melissa:Okay. So the first one it's a 2014 paper. It's published by a husband and wife duo, Regine and Gerhard Grimes. I think it's how you say it.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Think they're German, but they're at a Canadian university, called Simon Fraser University, I think. And they published a study where they analyzed how bed bugs signal to each other to come and join the feast, basically. You know, somehow, They let each other know?
Jam:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And so they took analytical instruments, NMR and a mass spectrometer, and they Analyzed all of the chemicals in the feces and skin that the bed bugs shed.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:They said they had to amass a Huge amount of feces, which
Jam:Oh, gosh. And from bed bugs too. It's like the these tiny little morsels.
Melissa:Yeah. And one of the researchers, Like, just let the bed bugs bite her so that they had something that they could be feasting on, basically.
Jam:Oh, wow. Jeez. I'm not
Melissa:sure how that's ethical, but I guess if you're letting them do it to yourself, it's fine.
Jam:Right. Yeah. No one else can make you do it, but if you decide to, maybe it's fine.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. So they got all this and analyzed it and found that histamine is in The feces and the skin that bed bugs shed
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And that histamine, as well as some other volatile molecules, will attract bed bugs and bring them to one another. So they used histamine and a few other molecules and made a bed bug lure Uh-huh. Which attracted the bed bugs to come to this trap and kept them there also. So That was a hard part was getting one that kept them there.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting.
Melissa:So that kept them there, and They were pretty successful trying in a few different settings, but the hard part about scientific research is now taking That and adapting it to be used safely in homes.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:And have someone who will mass produce that product.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So that's something that is kind of a theme today that we're gonna see is there's these really cool prototypes that have worked well in the lab setting.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But because it's hard to adapt it or there are so many hoops that you have to jump through or you have to get a company who's willing to buy in Quite literally, it's hard to see these actually come to the market.
Jam:Right. Okay. Yeah.
Melissa:And something that was different about COVID nineteen and these vaccines that were made really quickly Mhmm. Scenes that were made really quickly
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Is there was no difficulty to get people to buy in.
Jam:Right. Yeah. There's already a very pressing thing happening Mhmm. That people had got on board with.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Whereas, like, hey. New bed bug research
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Or whatever. It's like People most of us don't encounter bed bugs.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And then we're like, how are we gonna get on board with that Yeah. Or be motivated too?
Melissa:Exactly. And I think that's something some people were concerned about how quickly everything went down with the COVID vaccines. But in my mind, I thought, yeah, that makes sense because there's not waiting to try to get people to be convinced that it's worth it for them to invest into this.
Jam:Right. Right. Especially if the people who have power that, like, can green light things or
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Allocate money or whatever, they are convinced too.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Whereas for bed bugs, trying to lobby your we try to call up 1 of our 2 senators and be like, hey. Would you please support this bed bug Research, they would not return our call. I'm sure.
Melissa:Right. Exactly. So that's an interesting thing that I thought would be good and relevant to chat about.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah.
Melissa:So that's the 1st research paper that I thought was really interesting. One other comment that I saw they posted an article about this journal peer reviewed paper
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:In chemistry and engineering news magazine.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And there are some comments, and someone also commented that a lot of volatile organic compounds aren't really safe to have around humans or pets. And so that's another barrier to make it good for use at home is if they have other molecules besides just histamine Uh-huh. That could impact deaths as well.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Okay. So that's a histamine article. Now let's switch gears, and let's talk about a 2019 paper by doctor Megan Blackledge And doctor Heather Miller.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And they're studying antihistamines. Nice. So what they found is that antihistamine, to mean a specific one, loratadine, which I used to take it every single day. Uh-huh. I recently had to switch because I had a huge allergy attack In this spring, it's been very bad.
Jam:Oh, yeah. So is that one associated with a brand name?
Melissa:Yes. The brand name is Claritin.
Jam:Okay. Good to know. That's what I have been taking.
Melissa:Yeah. I've been all up in The allergy medicine, antihistamines. And actually because of that, I realized this is kind of an aside, but I went to the store with my friend who needed, some sleep medicine. Uh-huh. And she was going to buy that ZzzQuil stuff.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And the organic name of the molecule on the package sounded really familiar, and I realized that ZzzQuil and Benadryl have the same active ingredient.
Jam:Oh, yeah. I've heard that that what basically makes us sleepy in minidrel is the same things that they'll put into things that are actually intended to make you Sleepy. Right. Like, a sleeping pill or whatever.
Melissa:Yeah. And so the only reason I even noticed that or paid attention or cared was because I'd been taking all these Antihistamines lately, but
Jam:I
Melissa:was so excited because we had just finished recording the episode about allergies, and I knew Why it made you sleepy?
Jam:Because of the h
Melissa:o receptors.
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Right. Interesting.
Jam:So that
Melissa:was kind of an aside. Yeah. But Still related to histamines and antihistamines. But so this one, loratadine
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Is associated with Claritin, and it's nondrouser. So it probably works by a different mechanism.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But loratadine can also break bacterial microfilms and help increase the efficiency of antibiotics in antibiotic resistant bacteria. So those are some kinda big words here.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I'm gonna break it down a little bit. So after we started using antibiotics in medicine a lot, some bacteria began to develop a resistance to antibiotics.
Jam:Oh, yes. My wife has talked about this a ton. Mhmm.
Melissa:Yes. So a lot of that is because of the over overuse of antibiotics. So if you give antibiotics to someone with a virus, Their body is any bacteria that is in their body can build up a resistance to that antibiotic.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Right. So That's kind of a problem. There's there's bacteria that can hurt us that are beginning to be resistant to this medicine.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So research are trying to figure out how to solve that problem and how to either enhance the the antibiotic itself or reduce the resistance of the bacteria. You know, people are addressing this from Both avenues. But doctor Blackledge and doctor Miller, they were looking at an antidepressant that they knew helped a strain of Staph, you know, that bacteria staph?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They knew it helped the antibiotics work against staph. So They'd been working on it. It was really effective, but the antidepressant in such large quantities to help it be effective could be toxic.
Jam:Oh, I see.
Melissa:So it wasn't really a perfect solution. So, you know, they had been working on that, and then doctor Blackledge went to prepare her organic chemistry lecture, which I love because that's what I do too. Mhmm. And she noticed the chemical structure of loratadine. She just saw it when she was looking through some of her organic chemistry materials.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And it's a very similar structure to that antidepressant. Okay. So she a light bulb went off, and she wondered, can I use this instead? And it's not toxic Yeah. The quantities we might need and be a safer option.
Melissa:Uh-huh. And it worked.
Jam:No way. So she combined that with, like, antibiotic so that it Mhmm. Made the bacteria less resistant.
Melissa:Yes. It didn't work on every bacteria.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But when she added the liratadine to this strain of bacteria And the antibiotic, it was found to be 8 to 500 times more sensitive to at least 1 strain.
Jam:Wow. I know. 8 to 100?
Melissa:8 to 500, which is a huge range.
Jam:Jeez. That's crazy.
Melissa:So I'm sure there's, like, different settings or different concentrations or things that Impact how much more sensitive it is, but I thought that was so interesting.
Jam:That's crazy. Wow.
Melissa:And they even found that it was more effective on treating What's known as bacterial biofilm, so like a film literally of bacteria can build up on catheters and other medical equipment.
Jam:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And it's really hard to treat them because be resistant to antibiotics, and they just are hard to break up.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And when she applied the liratadine to those, it also would break up those Biofilms or prevent them from forming even.
Jam:Nice. Interesting.
Melissa:Isn't that so cool?
Jam:Some allergy medicine. That's crazy.
Melissa:Just some allergy medicine.
Jam:That we've all known about forever.
Melissa:And it's already safe for human use, so that probably will be easier to move forward than some other things.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Which is very exciting. That's a 2019 paper. I haven't seen anymore. I sort of looked quickly at their research to see if anything's happened since, but 2019 is Pretty recent in research terms. You know?
Melissa:So
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:It can be hard to get more data and put it out just in a year and a half or whatever.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So Something else that is interesting though is in our bodies, loratadine gets broken down to other byproducts. And those byproducts didn't enhance the effectiveness of the antibiotic.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So that means that this particular medicine would probably be most effective as a topical application where it's not in our body. So it's not getting broken down by our body. So it probably would be a cream
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Or something that we apply to our skin, and we don't consume it to increase the effectiveness of antibiotics applied directly to a wound or something.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:Or on those catheters to break up the biofilm.
Jam:Right. Right. Interesting. But would it would still be so you're taking antibiotics in Mhmm. Inside and they are worried about The resistance of bacteria to it, it might still do something, but just not as not as effective because it'll it'll turn into other Things in our bodies?
Melissa:Yeah. I think they're worried about if it would work in the human body as well as it does on and out of the human body application.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:Got it. So it may do something. But once it's broken down, they tested that byproduct, and it didn't work at all.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I think they're concerned about that application, But I'm really excited about the topical applications. I would be surprised if we didn't see those starting to be used soon ish, like within the next 5 to 10 years to help those bacterial biofilms.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So that one was amazing to me.
Jam:Yeah. That's crazy. I thought it was just cool that you could look at structures and and deduce things from it. Like I know. I know that's something that's, like, normal in your world, but the idea that This information just been out there Mhmm.
Jam:And it took someone Mhmm. Who was had information about a problem and knew about the structure of that antidepressant
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And was able to just see that it was similar. Like, that's a just a it took 1 person to realize that.
Melissa:I know.
Jam:And just to think to form that hypothesis about, like, okay. These are similar. Yeah. Maybe it'll work, and it did. Like, that's nuts.
Melissa:I know. And that's a lot of the nature of research is it's kind of like luck sometimes. It's not really luck. You're in there. You're doing the work.
Melissa:She had put in the time to know about these antidepressants. Mhmm. But if she hadn't spotted that structure when she was preparing that lecture, if she wasn't a teacher or something, She may never have come across it and connected those dots.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:There is a similar story of someone who won a Nobel Prize for there's these molecules called crown ethers, which probably doesn't mean anything to you. Uh-huh. But they can basically be built in these specific amounts that can capture ions really easily, so they're very useful. And he basically I don't know if this is real. This is what I heard from chemist folklore, but he was doing a purification technique, and he got some stuff that he thought was just not what he wanted when he was doing the reaction,
Jam:and he set it
Melissa:off to the side. And he came back, and it had formed crystals overnight, which is really hard to do and means that substance was really pure.
Jam:Oh, weird.
Melissa:And then he started to study the substance, and that was those crown ethers that he made on accident as a byproduct and was basically gonna throw it away, but he left it on his bench top, and it formed a crystalline material.
Jam:Gosh. That's crazy.
Melissa:I know. Like, what are the chances?
Jam:Man. And and it's like it's nuts to think about that That could be anybody, you know, just getting really lucky. But when you think about how many chemists are out there doing their normal job
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:You know, who who knows how many thousands of chemists every day are mixing some stuff? The chances of something cool accidentally happening start going up Yeah. Where it's like, okay. Any one of these 20,000 chemists
Melissa:Yeah. At
Jam:one any day of the week could at some point accidentally find something cool.
Melissa:Yeah. And it's a little bit of laziness. Like, you're not really supposed to leave it's called a fraction. So it's basically like a flask Uh-huh. Full of solvent and something dissolved in it.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Just out on your bench top. You should have properly disposed of it before you left.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Right. Left it out, and it turned on something, And it worked out really well.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So that, like, little bit of oversight or not doing the number 1 best, most safe thing helped him out a little.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting.
Melissa:But you have be observant enough to notice too. That's part of science is you have to make observations and draw conclusions. So he noticed what was happening, And he didn't think, that's weird, and move on. He thought, that's weird. Let's figure out what the heck this is.
Jam:Yeah. That's crazy. That's cool. It's like takes the luck and the curiosity, I guess.
Melissa:Yeah. Exactly. So that's very cool. I was really excited about that story. And just on accident, this was not on purpose, but all of these studies that we're talking about today are actually there's a woman involved in the research,
Jam:so that's been
Melissa:fun too. Yeah. Yay. Women in STEM.
Jam:Because you like women. Right? I mean, you, like, have friends that are women and stuff.
Melissa:I don't really I personally don't associate with very many women.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:Just kidding. I have lots of friends that are women. I'm for women in STEM. I'm all for equality. Yay, women in STEM.
Jam:Yeah. And if you guys have ever looked at our hashtags, Women in STEM is a hashtag in every single post we ever post at.
Melissa:Yeah. Pretty much. Okay. So then I'm gonna briefly tell you about There's 2 papers that were before 2010.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I didn't read them too in-depth. I'm just gonna briefly let you guys know that they showed there's 2 different antihistamines.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:One of them could aid in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Jam:Awesome.
Melissa:By increasing cognitive ability for Alzheimer's patients.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:They didn't Report on the mechanism as far as I know.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And another was shown to block a receptor that was involved in the progression of the disease. So that's pretty cool.
Jam:So both those for Alzheimer's? Oh, cool.
Melissa:Both for Alzheimer's. Yeah. So both of them have different ways of aiding in the treatment of Alzheimer's. That's another cool application of antihistamines to help us in another area of health, which is crazy.
Jam:That's that's so cool to know. My grandmother had Alzheimer's. I've heard that by the on the podcast before, but just I feel like for some reason, I've heard in the past, I don't know. Like, 10 years, all these things where there's promise. It's not like it's a one, you know, one and done fix or
Melissa:done. Right.
Jam:But promise of little things like that that Mhmm. Could help at least Yeah. Which is so cool. Man.
Melissa:It is cool. And then the great thing about all this antihistamine research in my mind is antihistamines are already safe and effective.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So we know the risk of taking them, and it's worth it to take them
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Is relatively low. They're available over the counter. These are safe products to use. And then finding new applications for them that will help us stay healthy in other ways is just really exciting to me.
Jam:Yeah. Did that paper about the Alzheimer's stuff? Is that antihistamine one that's already common that we all take, or is it a specific one that's kinda different? Or did you do you remember?
Melissa:I don't remember off top of my head, I know it was published in Nature in 2009, but I can't remember exactly if they If I have the antihistamine off the top of my head, but I can try to go find it and look.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So the last paper, This is my personal favorite.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It's it was in 2012. Doctor Heather Clark and a researcher in her lab, doctor Kevin Cash Mhmm. Created a glowing sensor that can be injected into the skin To show histamine levels.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:I know.
Jam:So sensor, what does that mean? Like, it's just a Chemical mix that shows things, or is it like a
Melissa:So, originally, she I'll sorta go through her research story.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So her research was on organic dyes that you could inject into the skin like a tattoo.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And they would respond to certain chemicals or molecules of interest. If you they interacted with this molecule, they would emit this kind of light.
Jam:K.
Melissa:But that's pretty limited to find Organic molecules that are dyes that will interact and emit light in exactly the way you want them to. They're not gonna respond to everything.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So they needed a more customizable approach is a good way to put it. So her new approach was to use what's called nanoparticles. That's exactly what it sounds like. It's a really small particle. And in That that nanoparticle has a dye inside of it, and she pairs that with an enzyme.
Melissa:Okay. So the enzyme will react with whatever molecule you want, and it can also use oxygen. That's the the key that you need for the right enzyme.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So if you have that enzyme, when the molecule that you want and oxygen are both present, the oxygen will be used up. Right?
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And so will the other molecule. So say, for example, if you have histamine as your molecule of interest Mhmm. You can find an enzyme that will react with histamine and oxygen. It'll use those up and create new byproducts.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So she did that. She would find enzymes that would do that, and the dye would glow Inversely proportional to the amount of oxygen that was present. Okay. So there's normally oxygen around in your body, But if you have an enzyme that's gonna use it up in the presence of histamine, then it will start to glow because we're missing oxygen.
Jam:Okay. Got it. Less oxygen, more glow.
Melissa:Less oxygen, more glow.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:So she basically combined these nanoparticles with this enzyme and injected it into the skin of mice with histamine and then injected it into the skin of mice without histamine. And when histamine was present, It would glow, and when the histamine wasn't, it would not glow.
Jam:Oh, interesting. That's cool. I know. That's crazy. So that she would just be able Look.
Jam:I could see that through the surface like, the skin of the mice, it was strong enough to show?
Melissa:I think so. That's My understanding Wow.
Jam:That's cool. That's crazy.
Melissa:I know. And they even tested it, you know, this concentration of histamine, this much glow. So they based on the glow, they can get a Pretty good idea of the concentration of histamine.
Jam:Wow. Man, dude. That's crazy.
Melissa:Isn't that amazing?
Jam:Yeah. Seriously.
Melissa:But like with everything, we have to take this and adapt it for use in humans. So right now, there's not a safe application for humans.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And and I don't think they've done human trials. They don't know what toxic impact it could have on your body.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But also, it's not sensitive enough. Sensitive enough.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:It's about I think it was 4 millimolar, which is just a unit of concentration. Uh-huh. And Humans can have histamine levels as low as 1 millimolar, I think, is the detection they wanted to get to.
Jam:Got it. So, yeah, it wouldn't help us much at the moment in in the human level.
Melissa:Right. So they need to be able to make it more sensitive, and they need to make sure it's gonna be safe for humans.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So I looked 2012 has been longer ago in terms of research. So I would think that there would be some updates, but I didn't find any easily accessible. I went to her website and didn't really see anything recently on histamine, so I don't know if that kind of stalled out or what. But even the fact that they were able to make that and see it work in mice is incredible to me.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously. Wow. That's crazy.
Melissa:Can you imagine if you have really bad allergies or something? Someday, we could just have, like, a little tattoo spot or something Uh-huh. That could Alert us to the level of histamine in our blood or something?
Jam:Yeah. That'd be crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. Like, oh, my arm is glitching. Better take an antihistamine.
Jam:Yeah. That's true. And do you think it would be a little bit ahead of some of the symptoms? Like because if it's already present in our bodies, but maybe it hasn't started causing
Melissa:Issues. Yeah.
Jam:Issues. Yeah. That'd be really helpful.
Melissa:That would be really helpful.
Jam:Because, yeah, like you talked about in the previous episode, most of us take gotten a lot of histamine. Yeah. And so we the antihistamine we take won't really undo that necessarily super fast or whatever. So it'd be nice to have that Ahead of time.
Melissa:And I wonder too if maybe they could get the detection limit down low enough. It's just starting to go. Yeah. And then it'll glow, and then you could take it ahead of time or something. That would be amazing.
Jam:That'd be awesome.
Melissa:It's just fun to daydream about the possibilities.
Jam:That that reminds me of, Frodo slash Bilbo's sword in Lord of the
Melissa:Rings Yeah.
Jam:Sting that glows when orcs are nearby. It's like if we could only have that, and what better enemy to to have that be connected to than allergies?
Melissa:Yeah. You
Jam:know? Oh, it's glowing. There's bee allergies nearby.
Melissa:It would also be interesting if you even if maybe they don't find, like, a safe application for humans
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:That A glowing dye could be used. You could take a prick of blood and and put it with that dye and see if it starts to glow or something. You
Jam:know? Right.
Melissa:Maybe there's other applications for the same very useful product that we can, you know, figure out.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Good point.
Melissa:Science is so cool. But in some ways, people will do this preliminary research, and that's, you know, that's what they can do, and they'll put it out there. And then you have to hope that someone else can come along and see that and do more.
Jam:Right. Yeah.
Melissa:Like it builds on itself.
Jam:Yeah. Somebody sees it that's already doing some research in another kinda adjacent Right. Areas like, oh, sweet. Glowing Mhmm. Thing we could maybe apply to this thing that we're doing or whatever.
Melissa:Right. Yeah. Yeah. So and sometimes that's how it goes, and that's another reason the process can be really slow. You know?
Melissa:Mhmm. Sometimes we'll publish papers, And it's a great foundation, but it takes 5 years for the person who can take it to the next step to get where they need to be and to find the paper and then be able to do what they need to do to move it Forward.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:I was in a conference, actually, just this morning, and, one of the people we were talking to, Their lab's main goal is to create new instruments to study how students learn things, And then that's it. They create the instruments. And the the primary investigator said, our lab's job is to make instruments, and then you guys Get to take them and run with them and do whatever you want to apply them to help students learn better. Yeah. And that is kind of what I think is a good metaphor for research.
Melissa:You know, 1 group comes and does this, and that's they're they're really good experts at Making glowing nanoparticles, but maybe someone else comes along and can be really good at making a new application for those glowing nanoparticles. And so science is sort of a ball that gets passed from 1 person to the next to the next.
Jam:Yeah. And
Melissa:that's really how progress gets made.
Jam:That's awesome. Yeah. That's a good way to put it, that it's just lots of people passing a ball along. And sometimes it feels like it's really slow, but
Melissa:Right.
Jam:For most of us who don't even know things are are happening, I guess.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:By the time it actually gets to a point where it's it's news to us as Regular folk, it feels, like, kinda fast, I think Yeah. For most of those things. We were like, oh, here's a new thing that is awesome, but then you look at it, and it's like, oh, no. That's been, like, 15 years in the making.
Melissa:Or Sometimes that'll even happen to me with things that I'm looking at. Like, wow. This is amazing. This is so cool. And then I realized it's in an article magazine from 10 years ago.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. Then I think, How did I miss this 10 years ago? This is amazing. Yeah.
Melissa:Or why haven't we all heard about this? This is so cool. So Yeah. Well, that's it for today. That's your, update and research chemistry lesson.
Jam:Awesome. I love it. I love these just like A little bit of a peek behind the curtain of what is going down in the chemistry and science world that is still brewing. And Yeah. It's just cool.
Jam:I mean, I like there I could probably go look for this kind of stuff, but I wouldn't even know it's cool. And there's so it's so dense, all those Yeah. Papers, so it's kinda cool having it be just boiled down, and the cool parts told to us Yeah. And other people. But
Melissa:Well, I'm glad you like it. Well, speaking of things that you really enjoyed or liked such as today's episode, do you have anything happy from your week that you wanna share about?
Jam:Yes. I do. You already know this, but for all you listeners, I was able to hang with my family last week. And so We try to like, every 6 months or so, my immediate family on Mhmm. My side, try to get together.
Jam:And the easy place to do that has been, lake house that one of my family members has and that he lets us use it when we need to, and it kind of helps be a Somewhat more central location for my younger brother and and sister-in-law and their daughter who are in Kentucky, because it's kind of in, like, East Texas, so they don't have to come into Texas and then go all the way across it over to where my mom lives in Abilene. And so it saves them, like, 6 hours
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:There. And then, it's not not nearly as bad of a drive though still for for Em and I and for my mom and older brother. But all to say, we got to hang out there for, like, 5 days. And
Melissa:Oh, nice.
Jam:My son and then my, brother's daughter were able to hang out. It's just kinda fun. It's only the 3rd time they've been able to be together. And, like Yeah. Over time, Their interactions are just funnier, and they are more interested in each other and stuff.
Jam:But it was just cool to get to catch up and spend some time out in nature and near a lake and Go on walks and stuff like that. So
Melissa:Yeah. That is nice.
Jam:Definitely highlight of my week for sure. What about you?
Melissa:Yeah. So mine's actually pretty similar. I guess with COVID, Some of the restrictions slowly being lifted, and most of myself and my close friends are starting to be vaccinated. I just have really enjoyed seeing people and knowing it's safe. Mhmm.
Melissa:According to the CDC, it's safe for people who are fully vaccinated to interact.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:And It's really nice. So I had a group meeting with my advisers in person, which never happens. I've been able to see a few friends lately. I've been able to Hug people. You know?
Melissa:It's just it feels like such a treat every time I get to see anyone. Even just, like, recording in person is Yeah.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So much better, and it feels so much easier than being on Zoom. It's just nice.
Jam:Totally. Dude, yeah. I'm I hear I hear that for sure.
Melissa:So, yeah, I'm just happy about that. So thanks to those researchers who worked really hard, like the ones we talked about today, on creating a COVID nineteen vaccine that could get us to some level of normalcy, but still be careful and safe. There are people who aren't vaccinated, so be careful about that as well. But, yeah, I'm really thankful for that, and I'm thankful for all of you listeners for coming and listening, and to UGM for Being so excited about me just sharing about science research. What a dream that I get to do this with you.
Jam:Well, thanks for, yeah, thanks for sharing all that research with us. And Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics we can share in everyday life, but we want to hear from you the things that you wonder about, the questions you have. So reach out to us, please, on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at Kim for your life. That's Kim, f o r. You're left to share your thoughts and ideas.
Jam:If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life and donate the cost of a cup of coffee. If you're not able to donate, you can still help us by subscribing in your favorite podcast app and rating and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jame Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jim Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. K. Usang and S.
Melissa:Navarro who reviewed this episode.
