Science confession, but not on a dancefloor ;-)

Even though there are many years since I was involved in science, I think about it sometimes. Still curious to know if there are functional nicotinic autoreceptors. If there are, that could mean (some=many) openings for new pharmaceutical drugs.

I have a confession to make.

I did my PhD at the Department of Pharmacology in Göteborg. Everybody talked about Professor Arvid Carlsson and his huge contribution to pharmacology. So I listened to every lecture he gave in public. He was never at the department when I studied so therefore I was interested to learn from him. His experiments were very clear and distinct. I learnt that he has contributed to development to today’s beta-blockers, SSRIs, dopamine hypothesis etcetera. The list never ends… Research from molecule to behaviour.

This spring, I did something foolish. I wrote him a letter to ask his opinion “On the balance between acetylcholine and dopamine or vice versa”. If I would continue to do research that would be very interesting to study. And here, nicotinic autoreceptors could be putative targets. Since I didn’t know his address I wrote to the Department of Pharmacology. I waited. A week later I got the letter back. Returned to sender. So I felt very disappointed and stupid at the same time. So, I will not return to science.

But since I have studied the dynamics of acetylcholine you get a feeling of its behavior….

Ok, that’s all for tonight. I feel very relieved to have said this.

Have a nice evening!

Anna