The 40 Minute Question

Most of my classes are back to back, meaning I have to leave class on time to make it to the next one, and usually don't have time to ask professors non-urgent questions. Yesterday, however, I had a full hour between lab lecture and lab. I ended up talking to one of my classmates (let's call her Leah). She lined up to ask our lab instructor (who was also our summer Gen Chem instructor and fall Orgo instructor) about a side reaction. I decided I would ask a question about one of the papers we have to read for a project. Let's call our instructor Dr. Avogadro for fun.

Oral bioavailability is obviously important, I began. But what all does that mean, other than you can swallow the drug without it killing you or being destroyed by stomach acid?

Well, it turns out, a lot. There's the stomach acid issue, the issue of metabolism, whether the drug can be absorbed through the stomach lining… I asked about the "fillers" in pills as well, which prompted Dr. Avogadro to discuss the differences in how quickly liquids, gels, and solid pills are absorbed. Since Avogadro worked at a pharmaceutical company before grad school and still does some research related to drug design, he went on to talk about the drug design process, and the differences in scale as you go from searching chemical libraries to producing kilos of little blue, purple, green, pink, or red pills.

Overall it was a very enjoyable conversation because I don't have a lot of exposure to the chemistry/biology aspects of nursing in my role as a volunteer, except for how to prevent spreading germs. So it's nice to be able to learn, at least on a very basic level, why some medicines can't just be swallowed. It's also very rewarding to realize that how many connections between Orgo and nursing do exist, despite what some people have suggested. Would I have imagined learning them from Dr. Avogadro? At the beginning of fall semester, probably not.

I certainly would not have imagined debating about Purell with Avogadro and Leah. That was a very interesting conversation too. I brought up the usefulness of Purell for cleaning marker off of the art table in the clinic where I volunteer. Leah noted the use of hairspray for cleaning marker. Avogadro didn't contribute to the cleaning discussion, but did argue about the concern of selecting for antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Purell does not lead to such resistant bacteria; go see their FAQs for more information). We went on and on until Leah had to leave, and I realized I had about fifteen minutes left to grab lunch and register a class before lab.

When I finished my last chemistry lab at Brandeis that afternoon, it was a little bittersweet. My bay this semester was not the most successful bay in terms of obtaining a high yield, or even product, but we worked really well together. Our elaborate drawings on the white board were something to be seen. But the learning won't stop after we had in our final lab exam.

There's still research to be done, for example, on the oral bioavailability of chocolate ice cream.