First off, let me say that Briana and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 22nd.  YAH!  I am learning more every day the blessing God has given me in Briana.  Life here would be far different (and much more cumbersome) without her.  

     As you can see, the rain has been coming in droves.  We had a tropical depression swing through that changed the road we take into a river.  Nothing shorts and flip flops can't handle.

    Classes this week have really piled on the material.  We're learning transcription and translation (pro and Eukaryote), the epithelial cells (more complex that you might think), chromosomal diseases, DNA technology, enzymes, connective tissue and rounding it out with the Brachial Plexus/axilla and arm/cubital fossa in Gross Anatomy.  Truth be told, it has been far more stressful than the previous two weeks.  The amount of data being thrown at us is amazing.   Not much time for extra curricular activities (although Bri and I did go out to Sister Sea Lodge for Blue Marlin and the trimmings).  

     In the midst of the "drinking from a fire hose" analogy, there have been many things I have really enjoyed and been fascinated by in these classes.  Some of them have to do with drugs, tissue layers and how they interact and the different disorders that arise from genetic complications.  The one I wanted to tell you briefly about is the picture at the top of the page.  This is DNA being replicated.  You can see the double helix and a bunch of other stuff around it.  The "other stuff" is two things: 1). a protein called DNA Polymerase (differentiated per leading and lagging strand) and 2). sliding clamp.  What's interesting (at least to me) is the fact that the sliding clamp (Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen or PCNA for short) aids the Polymerase in speeding up the replication process.  In our body's cells, transcription can happen in multiple aspects of the DNA chain (called Replication bubbles).  This clamp speeds up the process.  After all, the DNA strand can have 220 million (!) base pairs (A,T,G,C).  Anyway...I thought that was amazing.  

    I appreciate your prayers and would ask that you continue to pray as the first Mini (first exam) is coming up on Oct. 6th.  Thanks for reading.

     John