*Grumble* People with cameras while I am doing a presentation

A new and special kind of torture! :D

Well, anyway, here they are:


I am out of focus cause I was shaking like a leaf (mostly with adrenaline (or Epinephrine as difficult science-type people like to call it - what was wrong with adrenaline?)). In the backgrounds are Wenbo and Colleen and half of Gretchen. You can work out who is who(m) yourselves.

A sample quotation from the paper that went with the presentation just in case you are interested:Interactions PACAP / NPY
During fasting PACAP activates neuropeptide Y neurons in the hypothalamic feeding center (arcuate nucleus) which reactivates the desire to eat, it also stimulates the secretion of catecholamine and glucagon, thereby inducing lypolysis and glucose output from liver. The arcuate nucleus (ARC) is an area of about ½ of the hypothalamus where NPY and AGRP, another anabolic effector signalling molecule are located (Schwartz 2000). NPY/AGRP neurons are inhibited by leptin, and consequently are activated in conditions where leptin levels are low. Ghrelin, secreted from the stomach, is a circulating peptide and can also activate NPY neurons in the ARC, stimulating appetite and thus food intake. This allows the system to integrate energy balance signals with meal pattern signals (Sherwood 2008). NPY Y1 has been found to control alcohol intake and regulate intoxicating effects in experimental work carried out on NPY knockout versus wild type mice (Theile and others 2002).
It has been determined that when NPY is secreted under psychological stress it can interfere with immune defences and this may be the linking factor seen in cases where stress has been shown to result in a reduced resistance to infections (MacKay and others 2004). Recent research has shown the PACAP directly interacts with NPY neurons in the ARC to increase cytosolic Ca2+ concentration [Ca2+]i (Nakata and Yada 2007). The PACAP stimulation of the NPY selectively stimulates carbohydrate intake. At high agonist levels the sustained elevated Ca2+ concentration signals activate calceneurin (protein phosphatase 3) (Shuttleworth 2004). Calcineurin activates the T-cells of the immune system by activating NFATc, a transcription factor, by dephosphorylating it and thus allowing it to translocate to the nucleus where it can activate transcriptionally hypertrophic genes (Mascereno 2008).

Or, in English: NPY is the thing that makes you hungry. PACAP makes you less hungry especially for carbohydrates and starts the process of releasing energy stores. If you get stressed NPY may be the reason you are more likely to be ill. If we mess with this process we might be able to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes. Messing with this process is a bad idea. The end.