Michael Reding is a senior biology major from Little Rock, Arkansas. He has been accepted to medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Human
bile acids play a part in the growth of human colon cancer tumors as well as
some common problems including bile gastritis and diarrhea.
Bile acids are critical in digestion, solvating the fats we ingest into
the aqueous environment of our digestive tract. Furthermore, some bile acids
mimic the activity of neurotransmitters acetylcholine and carbachol.
There are some apparent visual similarities between the bile acids and
these neurotransmitters that could possibly account for this correlation.
My research focuses on exploring these possibilities along with other
resemblances between the molecules such as atomic charge.
Another important goal of my research is to help understand the mechanism
by which these bile acids interact with the M3 receptors that acetylcholine and
carbachol also trigger.
This work involves utilizing silicon graphics software that allows
electron-density mapping of molecules and analysis of their similarities.
School of Natural Sciences | Biology | Chemistry | Math and Computer Sci. | Physics