This week I'm attending...

.... the 6th CERMAX practical course on basic NMR(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) here at the ITQB. It's a bit heavy for a soft molecular and structural biology brain - its been a while since I read anything about quantum mechanics - but I already feel that it is going to be useful. Perhaps I can determine 3D structures of some of my small proteins which don't want to crystallise!

Then I will probably use the Avance II+ - 800 MHz NMR spectrometer which you can see in the picture here (from the CERMAX homepage). It is the highest field operating NMR spectrometer in Portugal and is well suited for structural studies of small to medium size molecules, and especially for determination of 3D structures of proteins in solution.

Have a spinning week :-)

News from Portugal

Since last time I wrote I have had another exam in Portuguese at Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. It didn’t go very well, but at least I passed J Now I’m finished with level B1, with level B2 coming up (intermediate). The language is difficult to learn, especially when you don’t practise much, and for someone with no experience in Latin/Roman languages (like me), it is even more difficult. Just to give you an example of the complexity, a typical regular verb in Portuguese have 50 different forms, while in French it has only 30!!! However, because of the complexity you don’t have to use a lot of words to express what you want J

When it comes to the science, I have finally received some DNA that I ordered a long time ago, and we have tested it in electrochemistry experiments (cyclic voltammetry). We still don’t have any conclusive results, but we are getting there. I have ordered more DNA, which we will start using next week. On my “to do” list we also find more EPR and Raman spectroscopy experiments J I have also received some knock out mutants from my French collaborators that I will get going next week!

Then, on the following week I’ll take part in a NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) course (6th CERMAX practical course on basic NMR) which is given here at the ITQB. I look forward to that! Once again, I gain a lot from being in a multidisciplinary research institute.

This week there are two holidays here in Lisbon. On Monday (June 10^th) it was Portugal’s national day, and on June 13^th it is St. Anthony’s day and Lisbon municipality holiday. On this day, the “lisboetas” celebrate St. Anthony which was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was canonized on 16 January 1946 and is the saint of finding things or lost people. He is also known as a marriage saint, because there are legends of him reconciling couples. On his feast day (actually the day before, at night on June 12^th) he is celebrated with “Marchas Populares” (folk parades) where cultural associations from different neighbourhoods in Lisbon march down Avenida de Liberdade (Lisbons main boulevard) whilst singing and dancing (choreographed) in spectacular colourful outfits, a mass wedding (12 couples get married at the same time in the Sé cathedral – they also take part in the popular march) and street parties in all the traditional districts of Lisbon (e.g. Alfama, Mouraria, Bica and Madragoa) with grilled sardines! So if you want to visit Lisbon at a time with lots of action, I think 12^th and 13^th of June is a good choice J

Here is a picture from 2010 (from the Portugal news online).

Happy holidays!