Long time no bloggy. I went to Basel Switzerland in October and had a blast. I presented a poster on the role of the alternative pathway of complement in Rheumatoid Arthritis at the International Complement Workshop. Pretty much all of Basel looks like this (I should know, I got lost and walked around the town for upwards of eight hours during two of the days). Some of the best Turkish food can be purchased in Basel.



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I sent out all of my applications for graduate schools. That was stressful. I have my fingers crossed for Harvard and UNC and Duke. I can't help but letting the school's mascots impact my feelings. Did you know that the mascot for Stanford is a tree? A tree?!?



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My parents in law came into town and Jess and I took them to Glenwood Springs. The premise is that this place is a natural mineral hot spring. A tacky tourist trap has sprung up around the pools where any manner of crystal bracelet or colorful rock can be purchased on the cheap. It was chilly when we were there but the springs were around 105 deg F leading to a really interesting fog that lingered above the water. Every once in awhile, a fat lady would emerge from a wall of fog and you could gain a brief appreciation for why so many manatees get hit on foggy days.





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I went to see University of Wisconsin Badgers blow it in a game against the University of Denver. It was a super high scoring game and DU ended up winning something crazy like 7 to 6. A kid that I coached when he was a Squirt is a freshman for DU now. Luke Salazar. I feel most responsible for his success as a college athlete and I just know that 10% of his NHL salary will be more than enough reward.

What's a wombat

I am a wombat. I like to eat run of the mill bats.
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What's a seawolf?







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I feel that peacocks are underutilized in the world of
college mascots. Go fighting Peacocks.

Cool artists and crappy comedians

My wife is a financial advisor at RMCAD (Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design) where she helps young artists secure funding to continue their work. She does a good job and her students are very grateful. One even painted Jess's portrait.

This amazing gesture has given me an idea. I am beginning a contest on my blog. Everyone is invited to draw a picture of me and the best one will be posted on my blog and that person will receive eternal happiness and most likely be remembered for generations.

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The Colorado Avalanche have signed Peter Forsberg again! This is great news. While most people don't know this, Petey and I go way back. Below is a picture of him at my fifth birthday party. We grew up playing hockey together on the frozen ponds of Sweden. While he is well remembered for his showing in the 1992 olympics, it is actually me who was immortalized on the postage stamp. It'll be good to have him back in town.












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Nader is running again. Dammit.



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"Before science, we humans had dominion over Earth, the center of the universe. Now we're just a bunch of hairless apes on a wet rock orbiting a minor star in a marginal galaxy" -Sarah Silverman


Let's be clear, I don't care for Sarah Silverman and her show would be better if she weren't in it but I like this quote and the Jesus magnets in the picture. Dress up Jebus. Also, science hates you.

Difference between Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

Due to popular demand, I will now differentiate between Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Osteoarthritis (OA). Don't worry, I ll keep the technobabble to a minimum and use colorful pictures as appropriate.

OA is a mechanical form of joint destruction on weight bearing joints whereas RA is an inflammatory form of joint destruction.

In the blue picture to the left, an inflamed knee joint is represented by an enlarged synovium (sac that nourishes cartilage). The pathphysiology of RA is that autoantibodies (antibodies against components of your own bodies) form complexes with cartilage, other antibodies and likely still other anatomical features. These complexes activate complement, a pathway of inflammation in the body. The ongoing inflammation results in recruitment of inflammatory cells that like to eat bone (desorption) and the production of structures called Pannus that invade the cartilage space and change cell signaling in the joint.

Nobody really knows why these autoantibodies form but everyone has their own theory. The one that I like most is that infectious particles (viruses or bacteria) establish an infection at some point in the patient's life and the immune system reacts appropriately making antibodies to the infection. However, things go wrong when B cells (cells that produce antibodies) start pumping out less faithful copies of these antibodies (epitope spreading) that coincidently bind to self. These B cells are "helped" by errant T cells possibly through dysregulation of T cell ontogeny (T cell maturation).

Other great explanations for this autoimmune disorder are environmental (smoking, systemic inflammation), genetic (T cell receptors that present self antigens a bit too readily), and others.

Other types of arthritis also result in joint damage but have different mechanisms and different causes.

Woo, that was full of technical language. Hope it was nonetheless clear

Greek Restaurants on the back of toilet paper

I went to college in Madison at the University of Wisconsin. Despite no longer knowing the names of any of the players on the hockey team, I still cheer for them to win when they play DU. It is rumored that Madison is "where dreams go to get STD's" - Deiss.


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I live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver. Crack-whores and low lifes like to live here too. There are also modular furniture stores and the Tattered Cover here too. I like to walk over to the Bank and get hammered for cheap. Capitol Hill is also called Greek Town.

There are no good Greek restaurants in Greek Town.


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I am in a book club that rocks my world. We have only had one meeting but I felt like such a hot shot intellectual snob that I almost wet myself. We read Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five". Its about the fire bombing of Dresden during World War II. Vonnegut lead an unimpressive life. I hear this book was written on the back of toilet paper.

My boss is better than your boss

Things I like....

Nargila (not drugs, this is for smoking flavored tobacco) Rose is my favorite flavor. This was something I picked up when I visited Israel nine years ago. I am old.





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Jess and I like to smoke nargila and drink turkish coffee while we play triominos (Dominoes with an extra special twist, see if you can guess what it is). Turkish coffee is like normal coffee except that you drink it out of a sake set while you smoke nargila. I have a pretty sake set.

If you haven't guessed: Triominoes have three sides, like Napoleans hat and the University of Colorado's chancellors's head.


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I play hockey for a beer league at Big Bear Ice Arena. We did pretty bad during the fall. I was better as high schooler. I played for Hyland Hills. My team did pretty bad then too. Jaguars...yeah Jaguars.



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I like to read obscure articles on the internet and pretend I have friends to discuss them with. Dilbert is in my top three favorite cartoon characters; the other three are

1. Dilbert
2. Banda (my boss)
3. The dog from "Get Fuzzy"

Mad Post Doc

A little about me...my name is Brandt. I am the one on the left. On the right is my beautiful wife Jess. This was taken at a family event in the summer of 2005. We are still married.



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We live in Denver with two cats, Tesla and Monster. Monster lived in a trailer park in northern Wisconsin until he was five weeks old then he lived with us. He's the orange one. Tesla is part bobcat and likes to bite Monster. Tesla is gray, but not in spirit.






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I am a mad associate scientist but am actively applying to graduate schools and will become a bona fide mad scientist in probably six or seven years. Mad post-doc at any rate. I spend my days at the University of Colorado Health Science Center researching Rheumatoid Arthritis. I unlock the secrets of life and cure disease. I also spend a lot of time googling my name and transporting coffee from the coffee maker to the urinal.

Super Vegetarian Man has high blood pressure and can no longer perform

This is my first and only attempt at creating a blog. It may well go the way of learning Russian, the "Super Vegetarian Man" comic strip and countless other unfinished projects. My public relations representative suggested that this might be a good way to allow my adoring fans to catch a glimpse into my life so here goes....