Look Ma....i can breathe out white smoke!!!!

Haha, yes, i know I can be a bit 'giler babi sial' and 'jakun' at times but this is really sometime to shout about. Today, while waiting for the bus on the way to Flinders Medical Centre, with the cold blistering winds just 'freezing' up my cheeks; i realised that i can.........breathe out white smoke. LOL. From where i come from, breathing out white smoke dosen't happen at all unless you go up to Fraser's Hill or Camerons Highlands or somewhere high and wake up real early in the morning when its really cold but generally, if you could condense the air coming out from your mouth in Malaysia, well....Global Cooling already la (my theory about global warming is that cold countries will get warm and warm countries like Home would get cold, haha). I know my brother and sister would also be enjoying this ie. breathing out white smoke. We find it to be so amusing!!
On a heavier note (pun intended, haha), got counselling test tmr LA!!!!sigh..

How la?

My very first exams away from home (sounds so exciting like my first spoken words or something) are like in less than 3 weeks time (come to think of it, what were my first spoken words?hmmmmm..) Am finding it so hard to discipline myself (as always). I just hope that i would be able to find that inner will power to stay focus and not let my parents down. Sigh.

It's just so scary when your key lecture points for a topic in one of your courses is like this:

Pharmacogenetics

Students should appreciate the following
1. The principle of the relationship between genetics-environment-timing and human health/disease.
2. The broad concept of pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics (PGe) - the individualisation of drug therapy according to inter-patient genetic variability. The two terms are generally used interchangably.
3. The scenarios in which pharamcogenetics has the greatest value - eg. drug of low therpaeutic index, chronic treatment etc.
4. Types of genetic variation that may be investigated - single nucleotide polymorphisms (and small insertions/deletions). Patient can have 3 possible genotypes homozygous wildtype(w/w), homozygous mutant(m/m)or heterozygous (w/m). Potential impact of SNPs
coding versus non coding, synonymous (no change to amino acid sequence – also referred to as silent mutations) versus non synonymous (changes amino acid sequence – also referred to as missense mutations). Haplotypes - chromosomal phasing of SNPs
5. Utility of PGe to the pharmaceutical industry
- the need for the investigation of new drug targets for genetic variablity
- the ability of PGe to improve clinical trial process
6. Genetic variability in CYP450 - including specific drug examples such as warfarin and proton pump inhibitors. You DO NOT need to know all of the alleles for every SNP but instead those that were discussed in more detail in the lecture.
7. Genetic variability in UGT1A1 (GT1A1*28 TA promoter polymorphism) - including irinotecan example
8. Genetic variability in TPMT – you DO NOT need to know the specific amino acid changes but understand the consequences
9. Techniques to determine drug metabolising status - genotyping or phenotyping and the relative advantages/disadvantages of each. Have a superficial appreciation of the three steps in genotyping (PCR amplification to copy the desired region of DNA > allele discrimination reaction to determine which sequence is present > product detection). Phenotyping - administration of a probe compound. Determine ratio of parent drug:metabolite ratio. High ratio indicates poor metabolsim. eg. dextromethorphan (DM) CYP2D6 phenotyping. DM:DX greater than 0.30 indicates poor metaboliser (PM) status, DM:DX less than 0.3 indicates extensive metaboliser (EM)
10. The effect of Beta2 adrenergic receptor haplotype/ SNPs upon response to salbutamol
11. Whole genome scanning for candidate gene identification -used when traditional approach does not work. Exemplified by abacavir HLA-B57 example
12.Polygenic drug response - considering the impact of variation in more than one gene.
Exemplified by warfarin dose determination by CYP2C9 and VKORC1 (encodes for vitamin k reductase)
13. The application of gene expression profiling to pharmacogenetics - use of microarray transcription profiling to select patients requiring adjuvant chemotherapy to reduce unnecessary exposure to highly toxic drugs
14. The registration and potential problems with BiDil - the rationale for the company producing a drug for a single race (easy FDA approval, patentable) Problems with the study that lead to the registration (only in African Americans, people self identified race). Problems with the use of race as a marker for individualistion of drug therapy
15. Limitations of pharmacogenetics - in particular orphan patients (patient with a genetic profile that indicates poor response to available medicines). Problems with predicting rare events etc.

Die.

Why I won't be a good baker?

This is why.


Haha.

How I celebrated my coming of age (sure or not wan????hahaha)

I woke up on the 23rd of May 2007 feeling rather awkward. I must say that i was excited but at the same time also, i wanted so badly to be at home. Anyway, i didn't do much on that day but for the 'much' that i did, i was truly grateful for it. After the only class for the day, went for the weekly OCF prayer meeting and i just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all who surprised me after the prayer meeting.
I really liked the cake :)

Thanks guys!!!

Went to meet Ee May for lunch after that. I was sitting down on one of them benches in front of her uni and it suddenly began to rain. Had to run for cover.

Sitting on the stairs waiting for her.

Met up with Justin and Amanda for lunch later at this place called Rundle Spices. The food was solid man!!!haha. I really felt like at home for that brief moment.

Went back home after that and lo and behold, Li Xin surprised me with a special 'toast'.haha.

And for dinner, i had like the best food anyone could have asked for. Had like huge pizzas and a dish called 'abortion'. I know it was superfilled with cholesterol and those kinda stuffs but i tell you..power gila sial!!!!!!

'Abortion' aka Ab as the locals call it. Its just chunks of lamb/chicken and fries and all kinds of sauces all over. YUMMMYY!!!(it's a temporary replacement for Klg Jaya Fry Chicken, haha). We had 5 boxes of those and 3 large pizzas and no vege at all. I wonder did anyone suffer from constipation the day after.I know i did.haha.

The TIRAMISU cake that Kakak Ju-Lear made. It was superbly good, for real!! and it was her first time too!!apparently she got the recipe from some Martha Stewart site.haha
But i had to use a butcher's knife to cut it. Haha. Actually, it was very soft. Just that us being students, we got no proper cut-caking knife.

My birthday presents. THANK YOU!!!!

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH TO ALL WHO MADE THIS DAY EXTRA SPECIAL FOR ME!!(especially those sms' and msn chats)

I just want to end this post by sharing with you 2 verses that Jez and Melanie shared with me. Psalm 139:14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well

Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (emphasis mine)

"My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,You never need to carry more than you can hold,and while you're out there getting where you're getting to,I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,Yeah, this, is my wish." Thank YOU.

Last but not least, thank you to the Joker who was playing with WORMS on my birthday. HAHA!!not to forget my family back home,specifically to the individul which i had to force him to wish me. *grins*

Hello

Hi, in conjunction with my 20th birthday(freakin old man, i feel like a pak cik now), i thought i 'rear' a blog. Yes, you read right...'rear'. You need to give it attention like you give pets. Plus, i want to keep everyone at home up to date as to how am i surviving here in Adelaide. And i've been wanting to do this for some time already, just for kicks! So, buckle up and well,here goes nothing. Haha.